By Jim Rossignol on August 2nd, 2011 at 4:00 pm.
WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE COMMENT THREAD I SHOULD IMAGINE. OKAY THEN.
Anyway, I was just having a chat with my cat about all the games that have terrible endings, and I said that I honestly couldn’t think of any game endings that I really liked or respected, no, not even the Portal ones. And so he mentioned that he knew I was lying, because I liked the end of Hired Guns and also Grim Fandango. And he was right. Bloody cat.
So then: let’s see if we can come up with a definitive best ending? Any suggestions?
02/08/2011 at 16:09 Joe Duck says:
Football Manager, WOW and Minecraft come to mind…
02/08/2011 at 16:14 Ian says:
I see what you did there.
02/08/2011 at 16:57 Orija says:
The Witcher (absolutely phenomenal, look it up on youtube)
Metro 2033
Metal Gear Solid
02/08/2011 at 17:04 Calneon says:
I didn’t find The Witcher ending particularly special, it wasn’t bad or anything, maybe the rest of the game was just so good it didn’t jump out at me for being amazing.
The Witcher 2 ending was pretty poor though, the game just went downhill after the second chapter.
02/08/2011 at 17:06 Ian says:
Reply fail or replying to the top post to make sure your fave endings get seen? :-S
02/08/2011 at 17:11 Orija says:
Yes, isn’t it obvious that I mis-clicked stuff? *nervous shifting*
02/08/2011 at 17:32 Burning Man says:
I never understood any of the politics that flew around in The Witcher 2, and as a result, never cared a whit which way the negotiations swung. Oh Henselt got some land did he? Good for him! So Redania’s chummy with Temeria now, is it? How wonderful!
Yeah. Ending was kinda, “Okay the game’s over now. Toodles.”
02/08/2011 at 17:43 redward says:
It seemed to me that the impenetrability of the politics on display in The Witcher 2 was at least partially by design. Both the hero and the villain of the game are being exploited for their abilities and led to believe they’re getting something noble out of it – the secondary villains (the lodge of sorceresses) are ultimately just trying to make sure they don’t get into a position where they’ll be sidelined, mutilated, and/or murdered/hunted as outlaws (which is what happens anyway). The senselessness of the whole situation, the sheer number of people dead from the political machinations of a handful of people – I think the confusion of that is very much a part of the point. I loved that Radovid (who was kind of a fun, clever rogue of a guy in the latter part of the first game) does one of the most reprehensible things in a sequel filled with some pretty ugly stuff, and that one of the story’s biggest arseholes (Stennis) is the only one to tell you the truth about your situation in the kingdom – and then refuses to talk to you again afterward. Geralt (and Letho) are meant to be out of their depth.
I may be giving CDProjekt too much credit with all that, but based on the first Witcher, i don’t think so. I think their biggest mistakes were rushing the end and confusing the themes with all that talk about extradimensional elves and love interests we’ve never even seen in the games.
Really milking this Football Manager post now.
02/08/2011 at 19:03 Inglourious Badger says:
Going back to Joe’s original post – One of my greatest ever endings was from the incredibly buggy Football Manager 2007, it ended like this:
My England team reached a 2010 World Cup final against Jamaica. The game was so bugged it thought Rooney was still serving a 3 match suspension that had so far lasted about 57 games. We conceded 2 goals in the first 20 minutes, Terry came off injured, Crouch came off injured, then worse leading goalscorer Defore came off injured. At half time I had to juggle the team and bring on Darius Vassell as a lone striker.
…and he went on to score a hatrick. Darius Vassell! In a world cup final! As soon as the game was over and I got the news report stating how pleased the country was with my management I turned the game off and never went back to the 2007 iteration of that particularly addictive sport sim ever again.
Best. Ending. Ever.
02/08/2011 at 20:48 Hoaxfish says:
conversely, a game of Dwarf Fortress is always about to end.
02/08/2011 at 20:48 Ren7on says:
:O
03/08/2011 at 01:30 John P says:
I don’t know why people complain about The Witcher 2′s ending. It’s obviously the second act of a three act story. It’s not over yet.
And the wrapping up of the battle between Geralt and the kingslayer was excellent.
02/08/2011 at 16:13 Pod42 says:
Don’t look back by Terry Cavanagh.
Kind of a shame that’s the only game I can think of which made me remember the ending..
02/08/2011 at 21:00 Chakawi says:
I’m totally with you on this. One of the most important endings in recent gaming history.
02/08/2011 at 21:54 outoffeelinsobad says:
Agreed.
02/08/2011 at 16:13 bluebottle says:
Monkey Island II has to get a mention somewhere. Preposterous, infuriating and utterly insane. The 11 year old me must have sat, wide eyed, in front of that screen for about an hour.
Fallout also get’s an obligatory mention, for not being scared of kicking the player square in the nuts, emotionally speaking.
02/08/2011 at 16:18 stahlwerk says:
Only when the recommendations what to do instead of playing the game again began to loop, I came to realize that it was really over, so I let it sit there for another round, listening to the flute-only woodtick theme.
It’s an ending that just works, taking in account everything that comes before.
02/08/2011 at 16:20 Mike says:
Definitely Monkey Island 2. Infuriatingly brilliant.
02/08/2011 at 16:24 baladec says:
I’m thirding Monkey Island 2.
02/08/2011 at 16:25 manveruppd says:
MI2: yes! The only game ending I remember so vividly, even after 20 years!
02/08/2011 at 16:40 Wizardry says:
Seconded. Monkey Island 2.
02/08/2011 at 18:14 Sepulchrave76 says:
This was the first one that came to mind for me. Perhaps not the best (I certainly HATED it when I was a youngster) but very memorable indeed
02/08/2011 at 18:14 Khemm says:
Definitely.
Monkey Island 2 – both brilliant and sad, becase Ron Gilbert never made PROPER MI3!
Fallout – genius
Planescape Torment – it made me shed a tear. Seriously.
These are my personal top 3 best endings ever.
02/08/2011 at 19:27 LionsPhil says:
Fallout 1′s ending was ace. Not just the famous walk, but the preceeding epilogue telling you which settlements you’d failed to save.
MI2′s always struck me as just too lol-random, though. Like they’d run out of ideas and just stuck something on to cap it off.
Best adventure game ending? My vote’s on Full Throttle—it’s a perfect playable climax with an excellent mood-fitting conclusion. (Massive spoilers in video, obviously. Find it and play it instead—it’s one of LucasArts’ finest.)
02/08/2011 at 16:13 Handsome Dead says:
Nier
02/08/2011 at 16:39 BebopBraunbaer says:
damm you! this game is like ages on my “to finish” list and now it will have to be the very next i will finish.
02/08/2011 at 16:54 Anthile says:
And Nier is based on the fifth and absolutely insane ending of Drakengard.
03/08/2011 at 08:19 Shaid says:
Yeah, Nier, I can agree with that. Good ending. Then playing through again with the ability to understand the Shades? Tearjerker. Especially that robot and the kid. Oh my god…
02/08/2011 at 16:14 Will Tomas says:
The end of HL1 (not the bosses) is pretty decent.
The 3 ends of Deus Ex are also pretty good (from an ideas point of view anyway).
02/08/2011 at 18:06 Ultra Superior says:
Deus Ex definitely!
Ending in which you merge your character with the INTERNET and UNIVERSAL CONSTRUCTOR to become a God ??????
That is the best ending of a videogame ever.
02/08/2011 at 18:14 molten_tofu says:
Agreed on the becoming God ending of Deus Ex. And on completely the other end of the spectrum, the ending of the original Mafia.
02/08/2011 at 18:16 cjlr says:
Thematic title drop.
02/08/2011 at 18:29 Maktaka says:
Deus Ex definitely. It really managed to make all three endings feel like a momentous accomplishment, although I’ll admit the Tong ending was a bit weak cinematically.
Add in Beyond Good & Evil as well. Hmm, Space Marine ending in DoWII: Retribution as well.
And these aren’t PC games, but the ending to Terranigma on the SNES and FFX on the PS2 were quite good I thought. If the ending makes you lean back in your chair, hands behind your head, and let out a long sigh, it’s well done.
02/08/2011 at 19:40 LionsPhil says:
Yeah, DX did good. While Tong’s ending is a terrible idea, I don’t think the cinematography was that bad, and it was actually quite improved in the Playstation version IMO.
JC’s voice actor really was brilliant at doing Serious Deep Male Voice without falling into horrible growly melodrama.
02/08/2011 at 21:13 EndelNurk says:
You’re right about Deus Ex but you got the wrong ending. This is the best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM4yzgITg5c
02/08/2011 at 16:14 Ian says:
Having just finished Planescape: Torment, I quite liked that ending. It was a bit abrupt, but I got the “good” ending which I thought tied things up in a fairly satisfying manner.
I actually really liked the ending(s) for Dragon Age: Origins, too.
02/08/2011 at 16:16 joeymcjoeysalot says:
Yeah, my gf was so deeply upset that Allistair died for her. I think she would have been happier if her character died instead
02/08/2011 at 16:19 Ian says:
Do you not have the choice to force it to go the way you want with Alistair? I took Loghain. Initially Loghain said he should do it basically because everyone hates him anyway and it’d let him die with a little honour but I took the hit. Then when Awakenings came around it sounded like it’d be a bit balls if you didn’t have a savegame with a survivingcharacter so I replayed the ending and let Loghain do it.
02/08/2011 at 16:21 joeymcjoeysalot says:
If you are a female and allistair is your love interest there is no way to prevent him from dying for you in the final battle
02/08/2011 at 16:23 Griddle Octopus says:
I was about to say Planescape: Torment. The extended ending you get if you do everything _right_ is the best.
02/08/2011 at 16:28 fishdinner says:
See, and I thought that the ending to Dragon Age : Origins was pretty much perfect because i *could* send that whiny, simpering sod to his death, finally doing something useful with his miserable little life >:|
02/08/2011 at 17:06 TheGameSquid says:
OBVIOUS SPOILERS.
I was about to say that too. I played PS:T for the first time when I was 14 I believe, and the ending I got and the sadness of the Nameless One’s fatalistic destiny really got to me at that age. In fact, I remember struggling to hold back a tear there.
I don’t remember all the different ending there are to the game, but my first time through I was able to save all my party members and re-unite myself with all three “incarnations” of myself (practical, paranoid and good, if I recall correctly?). The Nameless One was still sent to fight in that eternal war (a war he perhaps started himself?) on that one hellish plane (Baator?) because of the numerous crimes he had committed as his other incarnations. In the ending CGI, the Nameless One seemed to have accepted his fate, and strode off into the distance. As I said, at that age it really got to. I then recalled the entire prophecy Deionarra had made at the start of the game.The idea of so many lived lives, and so many things done that even with the best will of the world could not be undone made me look back at my pitiful self and think about WHAT COULD CHANGE THE NATURE OF A MAN.
Ok, not that last bit, but it was still easily one of the most memorable moments of my gaming life. And to think that it was actually a mainstream title at the time…
02/08/2011 at 17:10 Ian says:
@TheGameSquid: I’d got the impression through the game that at the core of any decisions the player made was The Nameless One essentially just wanting to find out who he was and then finally die and be at peace. But a combination of finding out what he’d done in the past and the attitude of the Good incarnation made him happy to die and pay his penance in the Blood War. I don’t THINK there’s any suggestion that TNO’s original incarnation started it… just demons being demons. :D
02/08/2011 at 17:58 Tuor says:
It’s been a really long time since I’ve played PS:T, but from what I recall…
(Spoilers Below)
The Blood War between the Demons and Devils has been raging unabated for centuries and centuries. IIRC, the Nameless One did some Really Bad Things that doomed him to have to fight in that war. In an attempt to avoid his fate, he contacted a Hag who found a way to allow him to avoid this fate by somehow seperating himself from his mortality. This led to him being essentially immortal. The motivations of the Hag were apparently an attempt to learn something about the nature of mortality and the essential nature of a human being by observing the long-term results of her handiwork.
Many centuries went by, and the Nameless One changed — his personality did, anyway — and eventually he began to forget things… lots of things. He reached the point where he couldn’t remember who he was or why he couldn’t die. He did various things to try to regain his memories. And eventually the timeline reached the start of the game.
It was my belief at the time (based on my playthrough) that Fall From Grace would spend however long it took to find the Nameless One again, since she loved him, and that when she did, he would be freed from his endless fighting of the Blood War: that for him, due to his later actions, his time fighting in the Blood Wars was not permanent, but a sort of final atonement/purgatory for him to move on to better places.
Like I said, it’s been a long time, but I remember thinking that the ending I got was pretty satisfying.
02/08/2011 at 16:14 Lord Tim says:
How about You Have to Burn the Rope? It was almost all ending.
02/08/2011 at 16:14 Spoon says:
You didn’t even like the Planescape: Torment ending? It doesn’t give you a whole lot of closure or finality, but it sure as hell got me thinking about the game’s main theme.
What about the Fallout 1 ending? You come back the savior only to be told to fuck off! That one got me because I was not expecting it in the least bit.
02/08/2011 at 16:14 Dreamhacker says:
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, hands down. That ending had excitement, humor, good explanations of what was really going on throughout the whole game along with just enough new questions raised to make things interesting.
02/08/2011 at 16:17 joeymcjoeysalot says:
also agreed.
02/08/2011 at 16:23 Tubby McChubbles says:
You just inspired me to replay it, this time as a Tremere. Thanks. AGREED.
02/08/2011 at 16:24 Griddle Octopus says:
Um, is this sarcasm? The bit at the end where you look back at the tower block and…?
02/08/2011 at 16:34 sinister agent says:
I did enjoy that one. Jack’s appearance made me laugh out loud.
02/08/2011 at 16:50 Galcius says:
Some of the V:TM:Bloodlines endings were good. Like the True Camerilla ending where the Sarcophagus gets locked away and LeCroix deposed by the Tremere primogen.
The true anarchist ending where you give LeCroix the Sarcophagus, walk out and then see Jack laughing, and LeCroix finding out it’s got a bomb in it, is pretty classic too.
Vampire: The Masquarade: Redemption had a great evil-Sabbat ending too, where the Tzimisce lord with a hilarious abundance of titles pops up out of his crypt (you’ve been trying to prevent this and kill him), and starts giving a spiel about how amazing he is when Christof (main character, ancient Vampire and crusader) leaps on him, rips out his throat and diablorises him to steal his power.
02/08/2011 at 17:01 jack4cc says:
This
02/08/2011 at 17:16 Drinking with Skeletons says:
Absolutely agreed. I wish that the first time I played this game that I had got the ending where your character decides to open up the sarcophagus him/herself. That would have been great.
02/08/2011 at 16:15 MrThingy says:
Deus Ex: Invisible War … if only because all the endings were so depressing. How dost thou likest them apples? No very much, guv…
I liked the ending of Hostile Waters, oddly enough. With Tom Baker’s deep fruity voice.
02/08/2011 at 16:15 joeymcjoeysalot says:
I rather adored the light side ending of kotor. Mass Effect 2 comes to mind cause it feels like the ending actually mattered. But all-time best ending would have to go to LeChuck’s Revenge. I was so baffled as a youngster and deeply impressed as an adult.
02/08/2011 at 16:15 Herzog says:
Doom – Bunny on a stick!
02/08/2011 at 16:51 Daniel Klein says:
YES.
02/08/2011 at 17:02 PoulWrist says:
I was gonna post that. With the bullets through the “The End” text, you just knew there was going to be more. That’s how you end a game!
02/08/2011 at 18:17 Sepulchrave76 says:
Hah! When I first finished that, I thought it was the Doom guy who had killed the bunny, his mind being warped by the horrors he had witnessed.
02/08/2011 at 16:16 TechRogue says:
Portal 2, hands down.
02/08/2011 at 16:18 Mr Pink says:
I think that’s the first game ending that made me clap. It was the companion cube that did it for me.
02/08/2011 at 16:21 Mike says:
It lost something by being pre-rendered though.
02/08/2011 at 16:34 Balobam says:
It HAD to be prerendered though, the ending wouldn’t have worked any near as well if I was given half the chance to just wander off onto the moon and instantly die.
02/08/2011 at 16:35 awwells says:
I know its quite obvious but I second this. The moment I shot the portal at the moon at the end I actually guffawed. I have never guffawed at a game before. It was a beautifully executed moment, with regards timing and referencing earlier parts of the game. Brain made quick connections to moon dust.
02/08/2011 at 16:40 DSDan says:
I like music at the end of games. Max Payne 2 with Poets of the Fall for the win!
02/08/2011 at 16:43 CaspianRoach says:
SPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
02/08/2011 at 16:55 serioustiger says:
@ DSDan You win…Poets of the Fall, definitely.
Although the original Portal ending did make me cry, and only partly from laughter.
02/08/2011 at 17:33 Jahkaivah says:
@Balobam
I believe he wasn’t referring to that scripted sequence but rather how the ending is a video as opposed to ingame.
Which can be an issue when playing the game on resolutions better than 1080p in the future as it will end up looking blurry in comparison.
02/08/2011 at 18:42 gwathdring says:
I like the end sequence a lot … I loved the singing turrets, and the charred companion cube bit was pretty nifty … but it felt a little too forced, to me. When I saw the turrets in the elevator I expected to die, or be saved by the Oracle turret. While the ending was amazing in that it was unexpected, something about it felt flat. I understand the implications of the ending song with respect to what GlaDos is thinking and who Caroline is, but it was all disconnected enough beyond the comedy of it that I had an inescapable feeling that I should have been dead in that elevator. The dark certainty and finality of the moment those doors opened wasn’t ever properly deflected for me. It felt like a dream I was having in the instant before death. There wasn’t a concrete throwback explaining why, after GlaDos gives that dark, dark laughing final goodbye, nothing nasty happened and instead you find something Wonderland-esque and beautifully silly.
02/08/2011 at 20:06 LionsPhil says:
Yeah, I agree that it was a bit off. Somehow, for a moment, it just felt trying too hard, and the little switch to pre-rendering was just unnecessary. GLaDOS’ speech was fine, and the apparent betrayal too. The cube was a nice touch. But…I dunno. Putting it on a bit heavy.
The endings of the Max Payne games, hell yes, as they should be given how hard they pushed the dramatic presentation. Especially MP2 with the non-hardest-mode ending gutpunch.
“Max, dearest of all my friends…“
02/08/2011 at 23:02 propjoe says:
I loved the Portal 2 ending because I didn’t put it together. I just shot the moon thinking, “what the hell?”, and I was totally surprised by what happened.
02/08/2011 at 23:48 deadbob says:
Yeah, it clicked just after I had fired the portal gun, that brief pause and then ‘ding’,'oh yeah moon dust’, but unfortunately I can’t claim to have noticed before hand. I just fired in a vain attempt to do something after the sucker punch of the trapped button.
02/08/2011 at 16:16 Lars Westergren says:
Cats are pathological liars, don’t listen to it. Grim Fandango had a great ending, as did Planescape: Torment, I got some dust or something in my eyes from those two.
The ending of Phantasmagoria 2 was ok too.
Ending of Kotor 2 makes me sad too…the thought of what it could have been, if they had implemented all that was planned.
02/08/2011 at 16:23 Protagoras says:
What did they plan for the end of KOTOR2 that wasn’t realized at the end? I actually liked the game even more than the original (unlike most people), and it did feel like the ending was half-assed, but I never knew they had to cut down on the original idea.
02/08/2011 at 16:24 Bhazor says:
I quite liked the ending to KOTOR 2 (apart from the main character being “put on a bus”) because I liked the idea of being tied up in a plan so vast and convoluted your character can’t even understand it. It’s the same with Alpha Protocol where it turns out every single character has been lying to you apart from the mass murdering terrorist. It’s kind of like your character staggering out of a door as the doom castle collapses around them without knowing whose castle it was.
For those who haven’t played KOTOR2 its seemingly about the main villain wanting to kill The Force for the experience points.
@ Protagoras
From what I understand the Exile was supposed to end up alone with the rest of his party either dead or fled. Certainly it was supposed to be darker.
They did recover the sound file for Atton’s death. Though it does sound like a really rough cut. Not sure if its even the same voice actor or if it’s just a place holder.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2r5am_knights-of-the-old-republic-ii-atto_videogames
Also worth reading the full eye watering cut list for an idea of what else was chopped.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cut_content_from_Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic_II:_The_Sith_Lords
02/08/2011 at 16:59 redward says:
Grim Fandango got me emotional as well, mostly for the lead up to the final area, where you’re finally at the train station – if you click the exit, which theoretically goes to the promised land, Manny says something to the effect of ‘I could do it, I could just walk through this door and go. But I can’t.” I remember being moved by the struggle in his voice, wanting to just go for what he’s wanted the entire game but being morally unable to walk away from everything yet. For me, that moment tied the detective story of the game to the classic ghost story of the game, business left unfinished, peace would be impossible unless he stayed to finish what he started.
02/08/2011 at 17:00 lokimotive says:
Grim Fandango was one of the only games that had some genuine emotion attached to it. “And… um… Demons ride free… right?”
02/08/2011 at 18:18 BPLlama says:
I’ve got to go for Grim Fandango as well.
SPOILERS
The entire final act is absolutely brilliant – where he returns “home” to his office, but everything has been changed during his 4 years of adventuring (including Manny himself). The final goodbye to Glottis and ride off to the next world on the train is one of the best, most emotional moments in gaming IMO.
02/08/2011 at 18:48 gwathdring says:
-averts eyes-
God-damn it, Lucasarts, put Grim Fandango on Good Old Games or start selling it again. If Rockstar can give away a few old games for free, you can sure as heck sell thing through a digital service. I want to know why so many people like the ending!
02/08/2011 at 19:03 Rich says:
OR a special edition! As long as at looks essentially the same but higher resolution… maybe with Tales of MI controls. Although it should only be allowed if they get the whole voice cast back or remaster the old audio.
02/08/2011 at 16:16 aenean says:
The ending of Metal Gear Solid 3 is easily my favorite. MSG4′s ending was also strong, felt like a Bond movie.
Though Red Dead Redemptions end-game became a bore, the ending itself was pretty good. Oh, and Heavy Rain’s multiple endings are also pretty good.
02/08/2011 at 16:23 Rii says:
MGS4′s ending would’ve been fucking amazing had Snake actually shot himself. Instead he just keeps talking for another half-hour until your eyes are about to roll out of your head. Shame.
02/08/2011 at 16:24 LennyLeonardo says:
Although it’s a console thingy, so we should probably shun/ignore it, I’d like to say I thought RDR’s endgame and (sorta) finale were absolutely excellent.
I really loved how the last hour or so of the story was less to do with big gunfights and that, and more to do with John handing down his frontier knowledge to his son. Really impressed with Rockstar for having the balls to choose character development over set-pieces there, though I guess it had already had some pretty good ones.
02/08/2011 at 16:17 Spooty says:
I liked the ending of Duke Nukem Forever because it meant that I was finally done playing it out of necessity. I won’t ever have to experience that game again. Oh, the elation!
02/08/2011 at 16:18 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
Mafia, obviously.
02/08/2011 at 16:34 A-Scale says:
Hell yes Mafia. Also that they worked the ending of 1 into 2 made me audibly gasp, then cheer, then become sad, then call up all my friends to explain what Mafia is and why it was tremendous that they included it in 2.
02/08/2011 at 16:54 woodsey says:
Agreed.
It feels rounded off and actually complete. More often than not games either try to put in a stupid ambiguous ending (when they haven’t got the writing-talent to pull it off), or I’m staring at a piece of bloody sequel-bait.
02/08/2011 at 17:28 Jimbo says:
Mr. Salieri sends his regards.
02/08/2011 at 17:55 G_Man_007 says:
I was hoping someone had put Mafia; it was satisfying, gave closure, and fitted the subject. A good ending to a good game, and to have it included in Mafia 2 was a great little nod. I honestly can’t think of any other game that had a great ending aside from Mafia, most are mediocre, The Witcher 1 was ok, the Witcher 2, well, I was more concerned with the revelations to the obviously overall franchise plot, as it was a bit wanting, and I haven’t finished enough old classics like Planescape to warrant including them. I certainly wish to nominate Clive Barker’s Undying for unrealised potential, Unreal 2 for one of the most boring, and Chaser for most confusing ending, and the Well, What Was The Point Of All That Award.
02/08/2011 at 19:11 Abrahim1979 says:
Good God!
I thought no one was going to mention Mafia.
02/08/2011 at 20:46 I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze says:
Mafia is a very good choice.
02/08/2011 at 16:18 fuggles says:
Just as an aside, all these comments show on the first page in the recently posted bit. Not that I know of many games where it’s a real show stopper, but just be careful of accidentally posting spoilers on the front of RPS.
And Terra Nova, as everything about that was the best game ever.
02/08/2011 at 16:37 Ergates_Antius says:
Bruce Willis is a ghost.
02/08/2011 at 16:45 LennyLeonardo says:
And in the film.
02/08/2011 at 16:18 Ham Solo says:
I like the end of Mass Effect 2, because your decisions and work influenced it to a great deal.
The ending of Mafia 1 was one I also liked. Fit the game universe.
And the ending of Portal 2 as well as the one of Braid.
02/08/2011 at 16:27 TNG says:
I was going to write Mafia 1. Great ending for a great game. Normally I feel that the endings are either too dark or too happy or just rushed but in Mafia 1 it just felt perfect.
And +1 for Braid too.
02/08/2011 at 17:00 kyrieee says:
ME2 for me as well. Not the actual story conclusion, but the ending section as a whole. I felt uplifted when the game ended, in most games I feel nothing.
I like Max Payne 2′s as well.
02/08/2011 at 17:19 TheGameSquid says:
I’ll never understand why people liked the ending of ME2 so much. Or the whole game, for that matter. All that I saw was a super-easy ending shootout that made me wonder how the hell I was supposed to let one of my crew members actually DIE? It’s supposed to be some sort of suicide mission, and they end up making it even easier than the rest of the game (played on Veteran by the way, and I’m a very bad gamer). It was pretty much a walk through the park, and I think Shepard himself could have beaten those aliens purely by shouting “THE COUNCIL CAN KISS MY ASS” and waggling a medium-sized stick at them.
And what the hell was that boss enemy? I just threw a nuke on it and then it was gone. And the final AMAZING CHOICE you had to make, couldn’t care less. I lost all interest in the storyline when Shepard was forced to work alongside a man with Bionic Fucking Eyes while you’re trying to stop a race of mechanical humanoids and you’re not given the opportunity to ask why he is a Roboman. It’s just ridiculous. I felt like I was just playing some personal jerk-off of whoever came up with the storyline, and I have read more arousing material in formulaic 1950′s Sci-Fi novels, and let me tell you: I am NOT a fan of formulaic 1950′s Sci-Fi novels.
ME1 may have had a “standard” Sci-Fi story, but it was at least pretty well executed. ME2′s story left me yawning in my couch and asking myself, why the hell is still action-packed side-shoutout/story relevant to the overarching “trilogy”? Where are all those AMAZING CHOICES THAT WILL ALTER THE MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE? All I saw was Shepard making some VERY awkward pseudo-sexual intimidation motions towards Liarra because he know her from the previous game. Oh, and then I also had the choice of killing at least one family member for each of my crew members. Which I did of course, but that apparently makes them want to fuck you.
02/08/2011 at 18:00 G_Man_007 says:
How could I forget Braid? It made me really stop and think over the words that were written throughout the game, the meaning of what was going on, and the revelation that hit me like a sledgehammer when I realised what I had to do. Yes, Braid is the best ending I have ever experienced, because it left me there looking at the screen after it had finished, trying to take in the full reality of it all. The best ever use of time manipulation in a game, EVER.
Can’t believe I forgot Braid…
02/08/2011 at 19:06 gwathdring says:
@TheGameSquid
I felt the same. My companions and I seemed so competent against our enemies, that when Mordin ended up dead with me not even being sure who died until most of the way through the cut-scene … it didn’t make me sad event though I was emotionally attached to his character. They managed, with that ending, to take characters I felt were important to me and make their deaths mean nothing other than that I screwed up the boss fight rather than something emotionally powerful and interesting. I didn’t feel like my choices had an impact on the ending, because the game conditions that result in no-one or several peioke dying felt too arbitrary to me. The whole game felt like a lot of wasted talent.
I will say I enjoyed playing a lot of it. I enjoyed many of the conversations, side-characters, and aside from Miranda and Jacob, quite enjoyed my crew (Edit: Jack was more interesting in my head than in the game, and I guess I really hated her outfit and don’t actually remember any great conversation moments with her … ok wow, that’s only five out of nine (I didn’t like Shepard, in this game, even though I tried my best to make him my own)). But, even though when I think about it in bullet points the characters and story in the first game weren’t really any better, I replayed ME1 a few times. Haven’t ever gotten through the first two hours of an ME2 replay. I don’t mind the combat, it’s just something about the story implementation. The first game implemented a somewhat lack-luster story with a lot of gusto and energy. The second game took a story that was straight-up bad, but also some more interesting settings and characters, and then implemented it with far less energy. The story pales in comparison to it’s own characters and set-pieces, which was a problem even for someone like me who didn’t also find the characters and set-pieces just as empty and pointless.
03/08/2011 at 02:51 Stormbane says:
Yes! Braid had a great ending!
02/08/2011 at 16:19 AbyssUK says:
X-COM / UFO enemy unknown great ending
Edit also Indy Jones fate of Atlantis, Sam n Max, The Dig
02/08/2011 at 16:29 StranaMente says:
I agree with you, most of the lucas arts endings were great. Ah, so much fun with you SCUMM.
02/08/2011 at 16:36 Vague-rant says:
Fate of Atlantis! Probably my favourite of the SCUMM games (and endings). Also helped by the fact I was/am quite a big Indiana Jones fan.
Seems a shame very few of the youf today will go back and try out those games (or, indeed, any of the other games of the past generations).
02/08/2011 at 17:01 redward says:
Full Throttle for me. Loved that whole ending, just tied together really nicely, from the climax, to the hilarious final puzzle where you just move the screen over and click to avoid dying in an explosion, into the fakeout funeral. Just really well done.
02/08/2011 at 18:05 Matt_W says:
Amen to The Dig. I remember that as the first game (and one of the only games) where if you sat all the way through the credits, there was a surprise animation sequence afterwards that was pretty cool.
02/08/2011 at 21:05 Enso says:
The Dig was great but I enjoyed the moment you meet the inventor much more. The feeling of closure you get from an ending came from that moment, then the rest was “Right, now all we gotta do is get off this planet.” Still, the ending left me with that sense of fulfilment.
03/08/2011 at 05:26 Skabooga says:
The Dig did have a very satisfying ending; I like to think that the first thing he did upon returning to Earth was to eat a sandwich.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvKJpXd8ZOU&feature=related
~ 1 minute in.
02/08/2011 at 16:19 choie says:
No doubt in my mind — Portal. Hilarious boss battle followed by an amusing cut scene reveal (cake wasn’t a lie) and… well, you know. A little song that was kinda catchy.
Emotionally, I’d say the end of HL:Ep2 blew me away. Fabulous voice acting by Alyx (Merle Dandridge) and Eli (Robert Guillaume).
02/08/2011 at 16:19 Xocrates says:
I’m a huge sucker for the ending of Bioshock 2, since it made me feel like my actions in the game mattered, and was presented in a relatable way (something most games don’t even try to do).
And I guess I should mention the last level of Braid. Pity that game’s plot was so impenetrable, if not outright pretentious.
02/08/2011 at 16:35 Gnoupi says:
The last level of Braid is indeed wonderful, for me, with the backward effect, the way this level unfolds in both directions, and when you slowly realize your role in the second part.
I agree also on the rest of the “deeper meanings” and more pretentious stuff you see in the epilogue, though. It was a bit too much.
02/08/2011 at 16:36 dsch says:
The ending of Braid is brilliant, and I’m not talking about the last level (the one that runs backwards). The way the game does not end (you can still go anywhere you’ve been before) and the game world just sits there in the state you left it is a devastating reflection on its central conceit that time can be reversed and actions have no consequences.
Edit: *Slowly fumes at people calling Braid ‘pretentious’* Philistines!
02/08/2011 at 16:43 Web Cole says:
The ending of Braid was a perfect union of narrative and mechanics, its was beautifully done.
02/08/2011 at 16:19 Dave says:
BG:2 TOB
where everybody gets their own little epilogue and you become the god of murder…. win.
02/08/2011 at 16:20 Rii says:
The “goody two-shoes” ending for Bioshock 2 made me cry.
The Witcher as the final piece slots into place and headfucks you.
De Gaulle’s suicide at the end of Brood War.
02/08/2011 at 16:27 Casimir Effect says:
How so would you say it mindfucks you? The ending cutscene, the icy place; so much goes on in that game I’m never sure I’ve understood (or remembered) it all?
02/08/2011 at 16:34 Kaira- says:
rot13 for spoilers.
Nyiva vf npghnyyl gur tenaqznfgre (be vf ur?). Ng yrnfg ur gnyxf va gur fnzr jnl nf lbh gnhtug Nyiva qhevat gur tnzr. Vg vf vzcyvrq Nyiva, orvat n Fbhepr vf noyr gb geniry abg bayl va fcnpr, ohg nyfb gvzr.
02/08/2011 at 16:35 Rii says:
Did you not ever wonder what happened to Alvin? Link.
02/08/2011 at 17:01 Juan Carlo says:
The Witcher has like 7 endings, all which play out one after another (it kind of suffers from Return of the King syndrome in that just when you think it will end, it hits you with another ending).
But the final cinematic of the game with the assassination attempt is awesome. It’s one of few game endings that instantly made me want to play a sequel.
See it again here if you like to refresh your memory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYfxpV5dpU4&feature=fvst
02/08/2011 at 17:13 chiablo says:
I’ll put my vote in for The Witcher’s ending. It turned it from a great RPG into one of my all time favorite RPGs.
02/08/2011 at 22:00 Casimir Effect says:
See I got the whole Alvin probably being the Grandmaster thing, but the Grandmaster acting or justifying himself in a manner similar to how you taught Alvin – that is fantastic.
I need to replay that game now to check these things. If only Act 2 didn’t eat so much swamp dick.
02/08/2011 at 16:21 Koozer says:
I actually loved the ending sequence to Mass Effect, with you running along the hull of the ship. (does that count?) Shame about the sequel.
02/08/2011 at 17:34 sinister agent says:
I thought that was great too. ME’s whole end sequence was strong, but almost ruined for me when Shepherd lived. It would have been much more effective if she’d died. It’s particularly disappointing given the events of the sequel’s introduction.
02/08/2011 at 17:39 Burning Man says:
My favourite moment in Mass Effect 1 was Vigil telling you everything. Epic. I will never ever forget that.
02/08/2011 at 18:54 Inglourious Badger says:
Agreed, ME1 had a great ending. Juggling those decisions (save the council vs. let humans take over) whilst racing to your goal down the side of an epic, crumbling space skyscraper = Awesome. Returning to the place where you started, but seeing it completely decimated really hit home what was at stake as well. (I guess seeing Earth in the same state in ME3 will have the same effect.) It reminded me of the end of Lord of the Rings in that respect (the book, at least. The films inexplicably left it out)
02/08/2011 at 19:14 gwathdring says:
I liked Mass Effect 1′s ending too. And god yes, the ship-exterior sequence felt awesome. I really felt like I was racing against time to fight some powerful enemy. I didn’t get that out of Mass Effect 2, even though that feeling was pitched at me from before the game was even on the shelves.
I will say, though, I was hugely disappointed by how Saren was ultimately handled. I like him up until Virmire. Then I had some doubts about how well his part of the story would pan out. And then we got to that final scene and it felt like they were actually going to do something interesting … and what they did could have been interesting if they’d played with it a little more … but instead they reanimated his corpse so I could have a shitty boss-fight. I really didn’t want a boss-fight in Mass Effect. So much of the game was out of combat, that I wanted my boss fight to be something more interesting, some real conversational challenge or dilemma. I got some hint of that from the save the council choice, but not quite. I never got the dialog equivalent of that space fight sequence climbing the citadel, and I really needed that out of Mass Effect. Adding insult to injury was the way Saren’s ending was handled.
02/08/2011 at 21:12 Enso says:
Agreed. If you had enough paragon points you could win Saren over and cause him to kill himself, skipping the first fight. Then they go and reanimate him. Should have left it.
I think there’s a problem where it’s expected to have a boss fight. I’ve heard people complain about not feeling like they achieved anything unless they’ve killed some megabeast at the end. It’s the same thing as with people who hate films with open endings.
03/08/2011 at 00:18 gwathdring says:
Argh! I felt like something … important was happening when he pointed that gun at his own head. It was tense. I was wondering whether or not I should have said what I did, what I’d manipulated my way into … and then BLAM.
And just as it was starting to sink in exactly why it happened (not complicated, I know, but it hadn’t had time to have any sort of impact, not even a shallow WOO WE DID IT feeling) … guess what? UNDEAD BOSS FIGHT. It was excruciating. And it was way too long for how simple it was.
Speaking of which, I really wanted them to have a Paragon choice go wrong. You get the Paragon points, and everything looks best-case-scenario and then it backfires. And you feel like you’ve done something you shouldn’t have. But not in the renegade, breaking the rules way … you just realize the other option was better even if it bent the rules more. I wanted to see that, but I never felt like it happened. I want to see games that let you persuade and manipulate people in conversations show you the dark side of that power, entice you with the friendly looking “persuade” instead of “intimidate” and slowly you realize what you’ve convinced this person to do …
Meta mechanics! Remembering exactly how good the 2008 PoP game’s ending was despite how little I liked the game or even the ending at the time has made me think about all the times meta-mechanics like this have really made a game sing. The “Would you kindly” from Bioshock. “No wait. That’s not how it happened” from Prince of Persia. From little touches to big plot points, the games that really understand the effect gameplay has on narrative perspective really knock narrative out of the park even with simple stories and characters. Braid gets a heap of points here too.
02/08/2011 at 16:21 Icarus says:
I rather liked the end of Throne of Bhaal. I may or may not be alone in this.
Also liked the end of Mass Effect 2, because it was my ending, and that music. And ME1, because it clicked so nicely, and made me look forward to what was next, and that song.
And yes, I liked the end of Bloodlines too. Smilin’ Jack is best vampire, credit to team, etc.
Definitely Portal, and Portal 2 even moreso.
02/08/2011 at 16:44 Bobsy says:
I think the ending to Throne of Bhaal had weight to it because of the journey you’d taken to get there. Playing the whole series you found yourself spending so much time with the characters that having to finally let go was an intensely emotional experience.
The ending itself… well, it missed a trick.The antagonist of the whole series has been Bhaal himself, a selfish and arrogant death-god who was happy to see hundreds of his children die just so he could be reborn himself, not to mention the immense collatoral damage that the ensuing wars brought about. By the end I was champing at the bit to give him a big old slap to the chops for all he did…
But instead a hitherto unmentioned third-party character sweeps in at the last moment to take the place as final boss. And she’s a bit rubbish. I really couldn’t give a tinker’s toss about Mellisan, so it was a pity she had to go and piss on everyone’s chips in ToB.
02/08/2011 at 16:21 Choca says:
Monkey Island 2
Full Throttle
Castle Crashers
02/08/2011 at 16:21 Kaira- says:
SH2 – In Water-ending.
First ending I got, and pretty much suits the mood of the game perfectly. It’s just beautiful.
02/08/2011 at 17:40 Jake says:
I was hoping someone would have posted this. Silent Hill 2 has the best ending ever. It has the best story ever. I’ve never played a game with anything close to the emotional impact that SH2 had – talk about games with mature themes. It’s so sad, I can’t watch that video without welling up though if you don’t know the rest of the game it makes no real sense to spoil it.
I heard a rumour it was being re-released with new voice acting and higher res on PS3.
02/08/2011 at 19:01 Kaira- says:
@Jake
Yeah, Silent Hill HD Collection (SH2 and SH3) is coming out for PS3 at least with higher res and new voice acting. May be coming also on X360 and PC, though I haven’t found anything definitive about it yet.
02/08/2011 at 16:22 Gundrea says:
The best game ending is obviously the one where you win.
02/08/2011 at 16:23 Jimmy Z says:
Not a PC game (which is a crying shame), but Red Dead Redemption had an incredible ending. The very end stirred a lot of mixed feelings and the last couple of hours in general somehow felt very poignant even though at that stage you were done with the main plot and our rough gunslinger had set put shooting irons aside already.
02/08/2011 at 16:23 teh_boy says:
All of the True endings in Tsukihime. What? Don’t look at me like that!
02/08/2011 at 17:16 pigsdofly says:
+1 for that, I swear that every true end in that was utterly heart-breaking.
The true end for Heaven’s Feel in Fate/stay night is also good, just for the sheer awesome factor of that final battle.
02/08/2011 at 16:23 Doggy says:
Patience (that’s solitaire for you Americanese) for Windows has a pretty good ending I must say.
02/08/2011 at 17:17 Baka says:
http://data.whicdn.com/images/3739895/tumblr_l5dkmyyKgU1qza4ndo1_500_large.jpg?1283705994
02/08/2011 at 19:16 gwathdring says:
I never would have thought of it … but damn, you’re right. It feels so gratifying. You feel like a god-damn champion when the cards start flying.
02/08/2011 at 16:24 DukeOFprunes says:
Star Control 2.
It has everything: Massive, alien superweapon-destroying explosion. Escape pod that barely makes it. The brave earthling hero that gets the hot blue alien babe. Earth gets a blue sky again. “And the whole game was just a story” setup. Mysterious, unused setup for a possible sequel. Outtakes! You can’t beat all that, get outta here.
02/08/2011 at 17:18 Megagun says:
Yep, came here to say this. Glad I’m not the only one thinking of it. The commentaries from the aliens really push the ending from ‘nice’ to ‘awesome’, although I wish they got rid of the ‘aliens-are-actors’ commentaries and commentaries that referred a sequel. More commentaries like those of the Utwig would have been neat. :)
05/08/2011 at 02:16 Highforge says:
Yeah, Star Control II and Fallout II are in the top 5 best game endings ever.
02/08/2011 at 16:24 Skeletor68 says:
I loved the end sequence to Portal 1, not sure if that is the same as the ‘ending’ from a narrative point of view. The ‘still alive’ song really made it for me.
I agree that the first KOTOR had a great ending, and that number 2 was so very different (I respect that they were trying to do something very different though).
I think I just mentioned in another thread that there is a vast array of games let down by an end of game boss that is out of tone with the rest of the game and tends to pull me out of my immersion (Bioshock 1, Borderlands, I’m looking at you). The ending to both Bioshock games seems pretty out of sorts in comparison to the strength of their narratives in general.
Can we mention Heavy Rain here as it has multiple possible endings? I luckily came out of it with the best possible outcome but a friend of mine who played it through managed to mess up the game throughout and was pretty distraught after watching her endgame!
02/08/2011 at 19:26 gwathdring says:
Yeah … I would have loved the Bioshock ending if Fontaine hadn’t become the most painfully obvious Atlas Shrugged reference that ever has and ever will be (THE MOVIE DOES NOT EXIST). Really, I was so energized by the Ryan scene, that any end to the narrative could have worked for me, even the cheesy ones they provided. But Fontaine as a villain … sucked. And the boss fight was worse. The sequences, other than the boss fight? Fantastic. Absolutely gorgeous gameplay and scenery. Seeing the Big Daddy factory? Outstanding. Even with Fontaine’s rather crappy villainy, I was pumped. And then all of my energy fizzled in the final confrontation.
Maybe games like that shouldn’t have a boss fight. At least, the ending to a game like that simply shouldn’t be about shooting a big villain. Because that’s not going to create closure when the game is turned on it’s head as it was in Ryan’s office. I agree with others who have said the ocean needed to play more of a role in the finale. I needed something other than a boss fight, I suspect, and as crappy as Fontaine’s was … I don’t think a better one would have worked very differently in bringing the narrative to a close.
02/08/2011 at 16:25 Screamer says:
I’d say Wing Commander IV had quite a nice ending.
02/08/2011 at 17:19 Megagun says:
Which ending, though? I thought that the bad ending was really bad and felt out-of-character; Blair would never do something like that, dammit! The good ending, on the other hand, was really good.
02/08/2011 at 16:25 StranaMente says:
I liked the ending of Fallout 1 and 2 when you could see the outcome of all your deeds.
I liked Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis endings (yay for multiple endings! :-)) and Day of the Tentacle one. (I have to say liked most of the endings of old Lucasarts games).
From modern games, don’t know… I liked a bit the end of Dragon age origins (SPOILERS AHEAD): even if it was quite dramatic (my mage died) I think it fitted the epic story.
….and at the moment I can’t recall any other really good ending.
Is that bad?
02/08/2011 at 17:45 sinister agent says:
That was indeed a great feature. A bit annoying when it inists that everyone in Shady Sands was killed by mutants because you took too long (even though they were fine when you saw them immediately before heading off to finish the mutants off), but I nitpick.
02/08/2011 at 16:25 Dominic White says:
Nier, for the PS3/360. Or rather, the final ending available. I’m ROT-13′ing this to avoid spoilers, because it’s something unique.
http://www.rot13.com/
Guvf raqvat bayl cerfragf vgfrys vs lbh’ir cynlrq guebhtu gur tnzr n frpbaq gvzr (n zvfrenoyr rkcrevrapr – abg qhr gb gur tnzr vgfrys, ohg orpnhfr lbh pna fhqqrayl haqrefgnaq jung gur zbafgref ner fnlvat, naq vg’f abg cerggl. Lbh pna’g gnyx onpx gb gurz, orpnhfr lbhe punenpgre pna’g haqrefgnaq gurz, ohg *lbh* pna, naq vg’f fhqqrayl n ybg uneqre gb xvyy jung lbh gubhtug jnf n zvaqyrff zbafgre jura vg gheaf bhg gung vg’f n ureb, svtugvat gb cebgrpg vgf snzvyl ntnvafg guvf enzcntvat yhangvp gung vf lbh). Fb, nsgre nyy vf fnvq naq qbar, lbh’er tvira n pubvpr.
Gb fnir n sevraq, lbh pna rvgure chg ure bhg bs ure zvfrel bapr naq sbe nyy, naq fnir ure sebz gur sngr bs orvat cbffrffrq ol n cflpubgvp qrzba… be lbh pna fnpevsvpr lbhe irel rkvfgrapr gb fnir ure. Abg whfg lbhe yvsr – gung jbhyq or gbb fvzcyr. Ohg qryrgvat lbhe irel cnfg, cerfrag naq shgher sebz ernyvgl.
Vs lbh pubbfr gb qb guvf, gur tnzr nfxf lbh vs lbh’er fher.
Gura vs lbh’er ernyyl, ernyyl fher.
Gura vg nfxf lbh – nf n svany grfg – gb ragre gur anzr bs lbhe znva punenpgre.
Gura vg ortvaf. Vg bcraf hc lbhe punenpgref wbheany, naq lbh frr vg fybjyl renfrq. Gur pngnybthr bs jrncbaf? Snqrq gb abguvat. Nyy gur zncf lbh rkcyberq? Arire jevggra. Nyy gur dhrfgf lbh jrer ba? Sbetbggra. Guvf pbagvahrf hagvy gur ragver obbx vf pbzcyrgryl oynax. Lbh arire rkvfgrq. Naq gur raqvat cynlf bhg jvgu gur fheivibef frrzvat snvagyl pbashfrq, yvxr gurl fubhyq erzrzore fbzrguvat, ohg qba’g. Naq gurl tb ba jvgu gurve yvirf, arire univat xabja lbh.
Naq gura vg qryrgrf lbhe fnirq tnzr, va n zbir bs nofbyhgr, cher svanyvgl. Gung vf gur raq, naq gurer’f ab gheavat onpx. Vs lbh gel naq fgneg n arj tnzr, vg jba’g rira yrg lbh hfr gur fnzr znva punenpgre anzr.
Pyrire fghss. Naq vg pbhyq bayl rire or qbar va n tnzr.
02/08/2011 at 17:01 Gotem says:
url! V’z n angvir ebg13 ernqre naq lbh fcbvyrq gung raqvat sbe zr!
02/08/2011 at 16:25 aleric99 says:
Planescape: Torment. The ending of endings to one hell of a story the whole way through. So satisfying I come back to it every few years to remind me of what the medium is capable of.
02/08/2011 at 16:25 CelticPixel says:
Resident Evil 2′s various endings were pretty cinematic for its day. Maybe I’ve got the rose tinted glasses on and it’s been surpassed since, but it’s always the first one to jump into my head when someone asks that question. I felt well rewarded for beating the game.
02/08/2011 at 19:57 Joc says:
I’m wearing my rose-tinted glasses for this one too. Extremely rewarding despite having, upon reflection, an extremely small amount of gameplay (though the sum of the parts combined was more than adequate – what an excellent game).
02/08/2011 at 16:25 Casimir Effect says:
Planescape: Torment has been said a few times already so I’ll throw NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer out there instead.
Many different endings, each making perfect sense and being very consistant with how you played the game and what you chose to do. Say what you want about the gameplay but MotB seriously has some of the most concise and yet deepest story and characters of any RPG.
02/08/2011 at 18:02 Suilenroc says:
NWN2 is a deeply flawed game, and I think many people unfortunately missed this amazing story because of it. MotB is a masterpiece in module design. The story is driven by self-preservation, and it doesn’t fail to convey the dire circumstances your character finds himself in. It’s intensely personal and the decisions you make throughout the campaign have a profound impact on your future, that of your companions, and the realms. I think the evil ending in this game will be the darkest story I ever experience. Obsidian has some great writers.
02/08/2011 at 19:19 morningoil says:
I’ll second that. MotB was a brilliant story, and the moral choices you faced at the end, and the way they played out, were incredibly emotionally affecting. Definitely definitely one of the best endings ever.
02/08/2011 at 16:26 chabuhi says:
I admit that I got a little misty eyed at the end of Syberia II
02/08/2011 at 19:15 Abrahim1979 says:
Really? Good to know.
Syberia 2 is in my to-play list for several years now.
Syberia 1 has one of the best endings ever. (misty eyes there too)
02/08/2011 at 16:26 coffeetable says:
To the officers and crew of the GTD Aquitaine, we have halted the Shivan advance. The battle of Capella is over. We sealed off the system and our people are safe, maybe forever.
No one can fathom how or why the Shivans destroyed the Capella star. Though we know our enemy better now than we did 32 years ago, their motives remain a mystery. Perhaps they are exiles like we are, nomads wandering the universe, searching for a way back home. The explosion of a star might be a bridge between this universe and their own. As the old poet once said, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
From our odyssey into Hell, we have returned with a gift. The Ancient technology to build a portal between Delta Serpentis and Sol. To restore the link to our blue planet. To return home after all these years.
This is Admiral Petrach, signing off.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFCovNKC8k4)
02/08/2011 at 16:47 Archonsod says:
I thought the other ending (Alpha 1 remained behind) was a bit more touching.
02/08/2011 at 17:34 Seth says:
Thank you, you brilliant man. Seconded.
02/08/2011 at 16:26 kwyjibo says:
Tetris, where you singularly win the cold war for the Russians.
03/08/2011 at 00:37 Koozer says:
By inexplicably gaining launch codes to the shuttle?
02/08/2011 at 16:27 Lemming says:
Bioshock 1, good ending. I cheered when all the Little Sisters starting swarming.
Half-Life, the punch to the gut when you lose all control. You are just a pawn.
Portal 2, just awesome.
Legend of Zelda, every time I save the world and the credits roll over all the characters and parts of the world to that fantastic soundtrack, never gets old.
X-wing vs. TIE Fighter Balance of Power, when you finally fuck up the Super Star Destroyer.
And finally, putting on my pretentious hat, the myriad of hilarious ways a co-op campaign of L4D1/2 can end. I still smile thinking of the time I got pulled out of the helicopter by a Smoker at the end of No Mercy just as everyone else managed to escape.
I’m sure there are more that I haven’t remembered.
02/08/2011 at 19:38 gwathdring says:
Half Life 2 had a fantastic ending. Getting to see the citadel from the inside, and then having that serene, zen-like rampage through it with the super-gravity gun … but half-life 2 struggled with the same thing so many game endings do. How do you ratchet the tempo back down once you’ve resolved the climax? HL2 did a better job really doing something with all of that momentum than a lot of games, but it still sort of just fizzled once you had to start climbing back down. It fizzled in a way that left room for sequels to carry the torch, so from a narrative perspective it was just a page turner instead of a let-down. But then they did that two more times.
I think games in general have a real difficulty ending because they take you to such an emotional high, even if it’s pure adrenaline with no narrative force to speak of. Add characters and the player’s relationship with those characters and the story line and everything gets very complicated. But unlike in other mediums, gaming hasn’t developed many tricks to slow things down. When we want to taper off from all of that pressure we use the tricks of other mediums. We use a film clip, or a piece of a novel. We write or film the sequence because we aren’t sure how to do it in-game yet. It is rare enough in gaming to see an ending that uses these techniques effectively. It is almost impossible to find a true video-game ending that works. That uses interaction and gameplay to complete the cycle. I think Braid does this, for example, using the game to end things.
02/08/2011 at 16:27 kud13 says:
I agree with the Bloodlines and DX endings mentioned before me.
from myself, I’d like to add Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, the “bad” ending.
also, System Shock 2.
and the ending for S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pryp’yat.
02/08/2011 at 16:38 westyfield says:
STALKER CoP is one that stuck with me. Not really sure why, but it was a good ‘un.
Mass Effect 1 and 2.
Portal 2.
02/08/2011 at 17:20 thedextriarchy says:
I actually thought System Shock 2′s ending was terrible compared to the rest of the game. The cutscene was literally tacked-on, and the boss fight didn’t really give you a sense of the creepy, godlike nature of SHODAN.
My favorite parts of System Shock 2 were actually towards the middle of the game, before you get powerful enough to really fight enemies. The parts where you’re just hiding in ducts, frantically trying to time the three shots you have left before your gun jams, with the Many wandering below you, telling you that “You do not hide…forever.” It really gave a sense of the complete powerlessness and obsolescence of you, the single human caught between a fight of godlike beings.
02/08/2011 at 19:56 LionsPhil says:
Yeah, System Shock 2 was an excellent game with an abysmal ending.
Especially SHODAN pleading. And that “nah”.
Shock 1′s ending was much, much better (OH FUCK ME SHE’S HACKING MY BRAIN AAAAA THAT FACE IS TAKING OVER MY INTERFACE AAAAA), followed by some character epilogue.
02/08/2011 at 16:28 Stuart Walton says:
Not PC, but Link’s Awakening. So bittersweet it hurts.
02/08/2011 at 16:56 db1331 says:
Came here to say this. It was the first game ending to ever make me feel something.
I thought the ending of Enslaved for 360/PS3 was pretty good as well.
02/08/2011 at 16:59 CMaster says:
Yeah, had me on the edge of tears as a kid that. I remember having really mixed emotions about actually going to the Egg once I’d realised what was going on.
02/08/2011 at 19:57 Arona Daal says:
Second that,even made me well up with tears…..a bit………but very manly Tears…….
02/08/2011 at 16:28 WMain00 says:
Loved the ending of Portal 2. Absolutely brilliant.
02/08/2011 at 16:28 Skeletor68 says:
Honourable mentions to Red Dead, Half Life: Ep 2 as other posters previously mentioned.
I actually really enjoyed the ending to Freespace 1 (haven’t completed the ending to FS2 yet).
02/08/2011 at 16:28 innokenti says:
I rather like the way Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Two Thrones ends. I like the elliptical nature of it all. (Sands of Time and Two Thrones both end as Sands of Time began.)
02/08/2011 at 16:30 Gnoupi says:
SoT’s ending frustrated me a bit, because it felt a bit like “there is this whole adventure and experience together…. and it didn’t happen.”
But I guess that was the best way to actually end this game.
02/08/2011 at 19:42 gwathdring says:
As the guy controlling the prince, that ending upset me. But wait, no, why are you just leaving? Surely you could … there must be some way to … but … aRGH!
But as a story, it was brilliant. It worked wonderfully and the ending made the story one of my favorite gaming narratives.
02/08/2011 at 16:28 Tylerbear says:
Silent Hill 2 – I got the ending where my character drives off a cliff into the water. Suicide as a possible ending? Wow.
02/08/2011 at 16:36 Kaira- says:
Don’t forget that you apparently had the corpse of your wife in the back of your car. The best ending for the game if you ask me.
02/08/2011 at 16:28 Fumarole says:
Fallout not just because of what happens to the Vault Dweller, but also for the many ways in which to get there.
02/08/2011 at 16:28 Gnoupi says:
Freespace 1: the last mission, in the wormhole, with all the stress going with, as well as the sad reality of your destiny
Freespace 2: I was not expecting that. A game with a war usually ends with a victory, a turning point, a new super weapon or hope. Freespace 2 ends with the enemy choosing to break the only link between you and them. It’s a rare outcome.
02/08/2011 at 17:09 coffeetable says:
I maintain that FS2 is the finest example of storytelling in computer games out there. The briefings, the monologues, the arguments between squadmates, the impossible missions – and it does it all without sacrificing gameplay.
03/08/2011 at 08:56 Gnoupi says:
“DIVE, DIVE, DIVE, hit your burners pilots!!” is a great example of the mission going wrong and not as expected since the beginning.
And it was like this often in the Freespace series: you have a briefing, clear objectives… and things change during the course of the mission. You are given the wrong coordinates and the bad guy escapes, etc.
02/08/2011 at 16:29 Spatula says:
I liked bioshocks, as i stopped playing after i hit ryan with a crowbar. nosiree i didn’t play on to the excerable boss fight.
Also, HL2:Ep2 had a good ending- though it’s not technically the end of the game.
damn, not very good at this.
Also cats are evil.
02/08/2011 at 16:29 Kreeth says:
Sands of Time: “Kakalukia” – tantalising and romantic without being cheesy, fantastic stuff. Best ending hands down, I reckons.
02/08/2011 at 19:51 gwathdring says:
I think it’s also one of the better in-game relationships. There’s a mutual respect and dependence built into that is, at least, less asymmetrical than in most games. And I completely agree: romantic without being cheesy. He doesn’t stick around trying to rebuild their relationship based solely on his memory of it, like the plot of a few absurdly creepy romantic comedies. He honors it in the story, and then moves on–I got the impression equal parts out of playful/immature sense of adventure, recognition of the futility of trying to rebuild it, and their relationship simply not having gotten the chance to cover the full distance from attraction to undying love over the span of their time together. It was utterly charming. The entire game was just utterly charming.
02/08/2011 at 22:10 Urthman says:
I like trying to imagine Farah’s face when he gets to the part where he says, “And you were swimming naked in this pool…and invited me to join you…and we totally had sex.”
Probably she gives him this look and then he says, “No, wait. That’s not how it happened.”
03/08/2011 at 00:04 gwathdring says:
Hell, *I* looked at the screen and said that. To his credit, even in his version of the story it’s totally plausible that it’s just a hallucination. God I love the unreliable narrator. It’s such a fun concept to play around with. :D
Damnit I was getting all starry eyed and then you had to remind me … it’s not perfect. It’s definitely not the sterling image of gender equality in games. But where it used bad tropes, I think it used them so much more gracefully than a lot of games. As long as they were already going to jam some sex-scene titillation into the game, I think they did it with more style at least than the competition.
And it was totally in character for him to make up that kind of thing. And we have no idea how much of them growing on each other over the course of the game is him rewriting things as he tells it.
Have I mentioned I love that kind of narration?
02/08/2011 at 16:29 Stupoider says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URcvdDtnM_0
Never forget.
02/08/2011 at 17:00 TheApologist says:
Of course, this.
02/08/2011 at 16:30 stahlwerk says:
It’s safe to say that the adventure division of Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts had emotionally fitting endings down pat:
Loom (tear jerking, resolving, yet myterious)
Monkey Island (hilarious, nice closeup of the heroes, fireworks)
Monkey Island 2 (undead parents, time travel, voodoo, betrayal, dreams within dreams, a literal theme park of emotions!)
DOTT, Grim Fandango, The Dig… Even the ending of Full Throttle did more things right than the game itself.
02/08/2011 at 16:58 Vagrant says:
I would also add Lucidity to that mix.
03/08/2011 at 05:37 Skabooga says:
Damn, you stole Loom from out of my mouth. The whole last 10 minutes or so I was playing more with my heart than with my brain.
02/08/2011 at 16:30 BunnyPuncher says:
Merlins Maths Challenge
02/08/2011 at 16:30 delialli says:
Shadow of the Colossus. It’s PS2, but it’s the best.
SPOILERS
Having killed the colossi at the behest of a booming, disembodied voice which emanates from the roof of the temple, and having been struck by ghostly black tendrils which emerged from the body of each, the player character has incrementally become a black-veined, gasping wretch. Upon returning to the temple, hoping to finally resurrect your dead ladyperson, you are informed that the colossi contained fragments of an evil god, and it was this evil god whose voice you heard. Riders arrive to prevent you from disturbing the sealed land, but it’s too late – you become a vessel for the god, and suddenly YOU are a huge, writhing transparent colossus, swatting archers and swordsmen around the temple. Their masked leader casts a spell, and the pool at the back of the temple becomes a vortex, sucking you inexorably backwards. You can fight this for ten minutes, rolling out of the way, but it’s impossible to escape – and, as you get closer to the pool, you become smaller and smaller, until you’re a coal-black and indistinct child figure. Into the pool you go, and the remaining riders flee, destroying the bridge leading out of the sealed land. After the credits, your girlfriend comes back to life after all, finding herself trapped in the sealed land, surrounded by deer and butterflies and whatnot. Laying in the now-empty pool is a baby, with horns, suggesting that this is a prequel to Ico, and that you yourself have unleashed the curse which sees a horned boy born, and sacrificed, once a generation in the earlier game.
My house of seven was transfixed by the entire game, but that was a highlight. Oh, and the horse falls in a ravine, but it shows up at the end (with a limp). One of the face buttons on the controller is ONLY for calling the horse! I’ll shut up now
02/08/2011 at 21:53 The Army of None says:
I second Shadow of the Collossus!
02/08/2011 at 16:30 tenseiga says:
Hitman:Bloodmoney? no?
02/08/2011 at 16:42 LennyLeonardo says:
Yeah! I forgot about that. Really nice ending, and probably the funniest/nastiest bit in the game.
03/08/2011 at 03:07 Stormbane says:
Oh thats another good one!
02/08/2011 at 16:32 Luke says:
The end of Vampire:The Masquerade Bloodlines for actually letting you open the sodding chest.
The end of Baldurs Gate II : Throne of Bhaal just for telling you what happened to all your mates after you either did or didn’t ascend to godhood.
Planescape should get a mention for letting you talk yourself out of existence which, while I found it a deeply unsatisfying way to conclude the game, it is at least suitably bonkers.
02/08/2011 at 16:32 TNG says:
I think most mandatory titles have been pointed out but I have to add Vietcong to the list. Loved the cliché ending along with Deep Purple’s cover of “Hey Joe”.
02/08/2011 at 16:33 Bostec says:
For me it has to be Half life 2 – Episode 2 *SPOILERS* Where Eli Vance dies and your left with Alyx balling her eyes out and it fades to black with her still crying, its the only ending that brought a tear to my eye. Its so emotional and gets you really involved. Its really the only truely silence that you relate to when your Gordon, what the fuck you do say?
02/08/2011 at 16:48 redward says:
I’m one of the only people I’ve ever conversed with who hated the ending of HL2:Ep2, and finds Alyx Vance a terrible, vacuous shadow of a character, pandering wish-fulfillment as an unkillable, neverending tutorial character who makes doe-eyes at the player at most every possible opportunity. The death of her father is comically signposted from the moment you see him after the (fantastically orchestrated) buggy-strider battle.
It was the first time I found myself thinking that Valve might not know what the hell they’re doing narratively. I’m glad that Portal & L4D have proved me wrong since, with very little handholding or obviousness in either of the worlds on display in those games.
02/08/2011 at 17:01 CMaster says:
Now, while I think Alyx is a bit of a cynically designed character in terms of emotional effect on the player, I can’t deny it works on me and I like her.
However, the ending of Ep2 I thought was pretty weak. The game has already established that the deaths of humans who aren’t Gordon don’t matter. In contrast to the original HL and even HL2, noone in Ep2 as much as blinks an eyelid when their friends and comrades die. So it feels just ridiculous that this death is important.
02/08/2011 at 17:24 Milky1985 says:
I don’t think we should be able to count games that are so blatently in the mdidle of story arch in this, as they are not real endings. HL:EP2 is one of these, along with mirrors edge and oddly both of the sodding crysis games (why do both teh crysis games end with “and now we need to fight back”, and where the hell is nomad)
02/08/2011 at 17:25 CMaster says:
C&P a previous explanation about where Ep2 completely throws away any chance that you take the deaths in it at all seriously.
“What I mean is the way in that while HL1 put quite a lot of effort in pretending to be set in a real place, with dozens of small, personal tragedies that you came across and often couldn’t help, while by episode 2, it’s full of complete “hey, here’s a fun minigame” moments for you and also employs one of the common tropes that annoy me – “only the named characters matter”. In HL1, there are no named characters. Friendly NPCs will react with brief horror to the death of a friend, and real anger if you are the one that does it. In HL2, you find instances like people sobbing over arrested family, people decrying the death of Lazlo, “the greatest mind of his generation” and the rebels of Little Odessa are exhausted and saddened by the deaths of their colleagues when you defeat the first gunship, not jubilant.
By episode 2 however, you have rebels whooping after you arse around throwing bombs back at a helicopter, a missile silo where the guys in charge (Eli, Alyx, Magnusson) don’t give a damn when half their staff are slaughtered in front of them, but the idea that the life of “Alyx” or “Eli” or “Judith” is under threat is cause for great concern. Obviously yes, people care more about those who are important to them, but come Ep2, it’s clear that even to the little guys, the only lives that matter are of named characters.”
02/08/2011 at 20:17 LionsPhil says:
I agree with redward’s first paragraph in full. I laughed at that ending. It was comically amateurish—an appalingly awkward attempt to pull on heart-strings that instead tickled my ribcage.
02/08/2011 at 16:33 redward says:
Planescape: Torment and Fallout 1 had wonderful, emotionally untidy endings. Fallout’s was quick & sweet, but I’ll probably always remember the lack of any music as the Overseer’s face hardened in the dialogue window, telling you you could never go home again.
The Witcher 1 had a great, complicated ending. So much so that lots of folks didn’t catch the bigger revelations (thematically and plot-wise). The Witcher 2 ending is much more rushed & ultimately less interesting, but it still made me think – the underlying theme of Extraordinary-People-Being-Politically-Used-And-Discarded applied as much to the villain as it did to Geralt, in a way that was sad, and not at all underlined.
I quite liked the ending to Wing Commander 2 & 3. Those brought it home pretty well, as I recall. Mark Hamill contemplatively staring out a shuttle window after the end of a very long war. Beyond Good & Evil had a pretty great climactic area & bossfight.
02/08/2011 at 16:38 Luke says:
Beyond Good and Evil, hell yes. I’d forgotten about that.
02/08/2011 at 16:46 Ian says:
I loved BG&E but I’m loathe to credit an edit where the best bit (in this case the OMG WTF IS HAPPENING TO PEY’J moment) feels like it’s setting up for a sequel.
02/08/2011 at 16:46 Lambchops says:
Didn’t like the cliffhanger at the end of BG&E though. Though whether this is just retrospective disappointment that we haven’t got a sequel yet that wiill be wiped away if we ever do I don’t know.
Good shout on the Witcher. I got it (at least I think I did) and it was rather clever.
02/08/2011 at 16:52 redward says:
Agreed on the cliffhanger bit in BG&E. Felt cheap, and made the ‘Pey’J is really the Damsel In Distress Of This Game’ thing kind of irritating. But everything up to that point, from the flight through space (photographing that space whale for the final animal photo entry) on to the the final bossfight was just extremely well done, full of gravity & portent. Unexpectedly great.
02/08/2011 at 19:07 Jae Armstrong says:
SHAUNI.
I AM GOING TO KILL THE HUMAN PART OF YOU, SHAUNI.
SHAUUUUUUNIIIIIIII.
02/08/2011 at 19:08 Inglourious Badger says:
And the end of game boss fight was an infuriating memory test! I have no happy memories of the ending of that game. Everything up to that point of course is wonderful
02/08/2011 at 16:33 Alaric says:
I got something in my eye when Tassadar died in the Starcraft endgame.
Also:
The Longest Journey;
No One Lives Forever 2;
Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit for you Euro-peons);
Keepsake;
Dreamfall;
Nocturnal Illusion (Hentai games can be good games. Shuddup);
Portal;
Gemini Rue;
03/08/2011 at 09:02 Barts says:
Oy, you worry about your budget and rednecks, brother. No need to be condescedning towards the Old Continent.
But yea, I also got something in the eye when Tassadar sacrificed himself.
As for Gemini Rue, colour me interested – what’s so special about the ending?
02/08/2011 at 16:34 Desvergeh says:
My top 3 endings -
1 Planescape Torment
2 Braid
3 Shadow of the Colossus
02/08/2011 at 16:35 HVO-Jetfire says:
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey had one of the most affecting endings of any game I’ve ever played.
No bosses, no irritating puzzle run-throughs: just wrapping up the narrative threads in a surprising, and human way (despite the silly amount of paranormal nonsense).
02/08/2011 at 16:48 Lambchops says:
It would have been perfect without the hooks to a sequel we are probably never going to get! nothing wrong with unanswered questions but it’s a damn shame if they aren’t going to be followed up on. i’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the game shoud have ended 5 minutes earlier.
02/08/2011 at 16:35 LennyLeonardo says:
I concur with Portal 2 mentions. Lunacy.
I’m going to risk flames and say I loved the ending of Assassin’s Creed 2. It was mental, but in a fun way. I liked when the alien lady looks directly at the camera and starts talking to you and Desmond’s like “What. The. Fuck”.
Winning the space race in Civ IV is weirdly moving too. Not sure why.
Also, Darwinia.
02/08/2011 at 17:03 TheApologist says:
Yes AC2! It was a great moment, and one that worked so well because it built on the way they used the animus to make sense of other gaming conventions like lives, levels, quitting the game, and the truth collection puzzles etc.
Loved it.
02/08/2011 at 17:44 Burning Man says:
Can’t believe I forgot that one. Did not see it coming AT ALL. Very very shocking and very very well done.
02/08/2011 at 19:52 Synesthesia says:
Darwinia!! Yes! My RTS persona is DrSepulveda, and i feel smarter for it.
02/08/2011 at 20:01 gwathdring says:
You know … the sheer audacity of how well produced the utter bullcrap at the end of Assassin’s Creed 2 was impressive. And I did laugh quite a bit. I’m cautious to call it good … but it was hilarious and it was just so completely out of nowhere …
The Assasin’s Creed 2 storyline feels a lot like what would have happened if Neo took both pills, ground them up, and snorted them. Or would that be Pathologic? I don’t know anymore …
02/08/2011 at 16:36 Joshua says:
I liked the Witcher ending especially. It really gave me a sense of… copmleteness
The explorer/stealth/good ending of Metro 2033 was especially good as well.
02/08/2011 at 16:38 Stuart Walton says:
Oooh, Silent Hill : Shattered Memories has a great ending too.
02/08/2011 at 16:40 Kaira- says:
Oof, how could I forget! Absolutely brilliant, and so sad.
02/08/2011 at 16:38 Hanban says:
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2. I remember being blown away by the ending, and all the thought that had gone into it. I was fourteen at the time so I don’t know what I would think now. Still my most memorable game ending, however!
02/08/2011 at 21:52 wererogue says:
Yeah, it *almost* made up for the awful “to be continued” that comes too early at the end of Soul Reaver. Worst ending for a good game ever until Halo 2. Sadly, it didn’t make up for the disappointment at how uninspiring SR2 was as a game, compared to SR1.
Blood Omen gave me my first “choose to damn the world” game ending, and Soul Reaver gave that extra value (by continuing from the damned ending instead of the salvation ending) but then made me actually yell obscenities at the screen for how bad it’s own ending was.
02/08/2011 at 21:54 wererogue says:
n.b. Soul Reaver was cut short because of a demand to ship the game, so it wasn’t really the devs’ fault. I’m told there’s endgame content (the final brother) on the disc, even – it’d be great to see a Bloodlines-style modder recovery of what could have been.
02/08/2011 at 16:38 JerreyRough says:
I liked the ending of Battlezone, what with blowing up a planet and everything.
02/08/2011 at 16:39 QuickRIme says:
It’s not a PC game as such, but for some reason the ending to Zelda: Link’s Awakening has always been my favorite.
02/08/2011 at 16:39 Synesthesia says:
you didnt like the portal 2 one? come on, that was actually good.
Final Fantasy Tactics had a brillliant story, i dont recall much of the ending, but the story itself probably deserves a mention here. And, don’t shoot me, but VII’s ending i actually loved. Yes, i saved the world, and it was coming, but it felt truly good that time. Shit, i crawled out of the lifestream, fought the planets autoinmune system and stopped a meteor for it. Shit, two ffs, theres gotta be something more. Something more pc.
Em… rick dangerous? I know! Killer 7! oh wait, shit.
02/08/2011 at 17:25 Drinking with Skeletons says:
Final Fantasy Tactics did have a great ending, mostly because it wound down nicely and tied up all of the loose ends.
02/08/2011 at 16:40 Mr_Day says:
First of all, are we talking about the end of the story, when it is wrapped up (including end cut scenes) or the end of the game, as in not counting anything that happens after you stop playing?
Fuck it, ignore my shitty question. I have two games that ended satisfyingly for me, and they are:
TIE Fighter
You knew what was going to happen, and that was the best part. The ending was a private joke shared by yourself, Thrawn and the mission planners. You also knew what the final mission was going to be – a very dangerous attempt to get Zaarin to do something stupid, which paid off.
The mission was difficult enough to get your teeth into, especially as you were going up against Defenders, and the smile during the cutscene as Zaarin’s smugness backfired on him lasted quite a while.
Freespace 2:
“This is a massacre, pilot, get in there and protect the transports before – oh. Oh shit. Just. Just get out.”
02/08/2011 at 16:44 Lambchops says:
Freespace 2 is a conflicted one. It’s suitably epic but at the same time . . . I don’t know there was something a little disappointing about it too. First time though I heroically sacrificed myself protecting transports. Oh the futility.
02/08/2011 at 17:07 Mr_Day says:
Would you have been happier with a massive battle where you pushed the Shivans back and everybody was happy? I am not sure I would be.
The cutscene at the end, however, is a bit disapointing. This is why I mentioned at first, do you count the ending as the end of the played game, or the wrap up of the story? Since FS2 seemed to be leading into a sequel, the story didn’t really wrap up at all, which I did find irksome.
But the final mission, I found satisfying as an experience. Loved it.
02/08/2011 at 18:04 Lambchops says:
Yeah, i agree with you. The wrap up was disappointing.
The final mission was really cool, and as you say, a refreshing change from the heroic last stand type thing. I can’t really put my finger on what exactly it was that didn’t feel quite right about it, perhaps because it has been so long since I played the damn game!
02/08/2011 at 16:40 awwells says:
No PC – But for the ios gamer the ending of sword and sorcery sent shudders down my spine. the combination of music and in game actions gives it a real sense of drama. Best game I have played in a long time.
03/08/2011 at 07:43 Oozo says:
It’s Sworcery, dammit. But you are right. Your avatar getting weaker and weaker, and sicker and sicker, just so making it before she collapses… that was actually melancholic.
02/08/2011 at 16:41 Doctor Professor says:
If this thread is teaching me anything, it’s that I really need to play Planescape: Torment.
That said, the only game ending that I can honestly say shocked me and earned loads of respect is the one to the 2008 Prince of Persia reboot. It impressed me enough that I wrote an entire essay about it, in fact.
Firstly, it’s not really a happy ending, which is itself a gutsy move. But it’s not dark for the sake of being dark, nor does it come from nowhere – it’s completely true to the characters, and it’s foreshadowed throughout the game. Finally, I think it’s an absolutely brilliant use of game mechanics to tell a story. The game rolls credits when the ending is just bittersweet, basically telling you that you can accept this ending and walk away. But most players can’t accept this – if there’s more content, it’s not a real ending – and will push through and do the terrible things the Prince does, because there is no other choice. It aligns the player’s motivations and the Prince’s, and refuses to let the player disown the actions the way they could if it was all just a cutscene.
Unconventional, brilliant, envelope-pushing, and beautiful.
02/08/2011 at 17:58 Urthman says:
I agree 100%. I loved the ending of that game, and your essay does a great job of explaining why it’s so great.
02/08/2011 at 19:12 Jae Armstrong says:
Yes. I was no end of pissed when Ubisoft decided to pass over making a sequel in favour of cashing in on the movie. ;__;
02/08/2011 at 19:38 Cerzi says:
Gotta agree. It was a hard slog through that game but the ending made it worthwhile.
02/08/2011 at 20:11 gwathdring says:
I agree completely. I didn’t at the time I played it … but that’s because I felt like I was tricked. Like I wasn’t given the option of having a cinematic ending with closure without going through with what the voices told me to do. But I was the one who wanted that cinematic closure for me more than real closure for the prince. It was a brilliant way of stitching in-game and out-of-game decisions together and I was so frustrated that I wrote it off at the time (partially because I didn’t enjoy the characters, story, levels, or much at all other than the artwork as much as I had hoped I would. I didn’t have enough of a connection with the two characters for the technique to have worked properly for me … but I recognize in retrospect that the technique itself was a brilliant piece of game design. It’s a shame I didn’t get to enjoy it properly, and I think the rest of the game is partially responsible for that.
A sequel though? That defeats the purpose. The world is pretty much going to end, and he ended it to gain a little more time with her. It was utterly selfish and utterly final. The great bad evil thing will ignore them, because it’s larger than that in a vaguely lovecraftian way. It doesn’t care about a couple of mortals (if I recall properly). So he gets a little more time with her and the world burns. It’s dark as all hell, and there’s no room for a sequel that doesn’t destroy that.
02/08/2011 at 21:33 Arvind says:
Loved that ending.
P.S. A sequel could work with Ormazd finally getting off the couch and deciding to fight his evil brother.
02/08/2011 at 16:42 Lambchops says:
Grim Fandango, Monkey Islands 1 and 2, Vampire: Bloodlines (redeeming the drop in gameplay quality towards the end with a good denoument) spring to mind.
I also like the way DA2 ended for me, Alistair cutting ties with me because I was an elf, then declaring his love, then me having an opportunity to kill the archdemon myself only to waste it gibbering to him and him going on to sacrifice himself. It was rather touching really.
Also I’m going to give a shout out to Little Big Adventure 2 here. It may be a cliched “you saved the world” ending, but seeing all the charaters both friend and former foe there celebratinng not just Twinsen’s victory but also the birth of his girlfriend’s baby was rather lovely.
Also I liked the end of The Longest Journey. The realisation that what April thought was her destiny was in fact someone elses and she was jus there to bring this about . . . it was a nice twist of expectations I thought.
Oh and Outcast, for the bonus clip of the charaters dancing to the remix of the Ulukai song (the actual proper end was reasonabl satisfying as well actually).
02/08/2011 at 17:33 Keep says:
Big YES to LBA (1 & 2). To those who haven’t played em: The game involves travelling around the entire planet(s), visiting various islands, encountering a huge variety of NPCs who give clues, reveal plot elements, or basically carry on with their own little lives.
At the end of the game, once you’ve overthrown the Big Evil Guy, you’re returned to the first island, your home island, and there you’re met by your girlfriend who was kidnapped, and all the villagers and all the NPCs you’ve met all over the world. They’re gathered together and they’ve laid out a massive party with flyers and cakes and all.
It’s a bit hokey, but dammit if you don’t feel like a big ole hero who really did save the day for everyone.
02/08/2011 at 18:34 Sepulchrave76 says:
Wow, so glad you mentioned LBA2. I guess it’s cheesy but…*sniff*
03/08/2011 at 05:48 Skabooga says:
I love Little Big Adventure 2 to death, and at first I was going to say that the ending was nothing to write home about, but the more I think back on it, the more I realize how satisfying it was. Thank you for making me remember.
“I’m going to take you out, Dr. Funfrock! And I don’t mean for pizza!”
03/08/2011 at 08:21 Harlander says:
Yes, yes, yes!
LBA2 was a beautiful game and the ending tied it all up with the finest of rare ribbon. Or something.
I was getting worried that it wasn’t going to be mentioned in this thread,
02/08/2011 at 16:43 Wizardry says:
Ultima V has one of the best endings of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdfyFypMQwg#t=1m43s
02/08/2011 at 16:43 Ovno says:
Portal 1 – definitely one of the best endings ever, never before have I sat and read the credits….
But not Portal 2, “Ooo the moon I wander what happens if I shoot it, oh a pre rendered cut scene”, I didn’t even feel like I had won, just like it had ended….
02/08/2011 at 20:14 gwathdring says:
Yeah … I really wanted more in-game stuff before that happened. Or at least in-engine, since there’s precedent for that in the Half-Life lineage.
02/08/2011 at 16:43 reticulate says:
Another vote for Red Dead Redemption. It ended like a Western should – melancholy as all get-out.
02/08/2011 at 16:43 Coccyx says:
Any game in the elder scrolls series in that there is no definitive end.
02/08/2011 at 16:45 kikito says:
Starcraft I’s endings of each campaign are very awesome. The graphics, although dated now, were top notch at the time. But more importantly the story, and the universe, was very good.
If I had to pick just one of the campaign endings, I’d pick the original Protoss one, in Starcraft I (not Brood War). Tassadar’s sacrifice took me completely by surprise, and I’m not ashamed to say that it might have brought one or two male tears to my eyes.
02/08/2011 at 16:45 ynamite says:
I realize this should be PC only, but maybe we can learn something from The Playboxes We Don’t Speak Of
Red Dead Redemption
Mafia
Fallout
Myth The Fallen Lords
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Shadow Of The Colossus
Xenogears
And more I can’t recall right now.
02/08/2011 at 16:55 reticulate says:
Now I’m sitting here thinking about it, I’d argue that consoles might actually have a bigger number of awesome endings over PC games.
This isn’t to say there haven’t been some really good ones, but when I compare stuff in my mind to say, Shadow of the Colossus, I’m hard pressed to say there’s much better.
02/08/2011 at 16:57 McDan says:
Yes, SOTC first (my favourite game) then red dead redemption second (my second favourite game by chance). Amazing, both of them.
02/08/2011 at 17:16 ynamite says:
I agree. I was wary of posting console games at first but many come to mind when thinking of good endings. God of War is another one, or even some of the Final Fantasy’s …
02/08/2011 at 16:47 billyblaze says:
I liked the Deus Ex endings a lot.
02/08/2011 at 16:48 Dana says:
Oh yeah, Hired Guns. Behold my deadly banana you filthy mutants !
02/08/2011 at 16:49 toomian says:
Interstate 76.
Never. Get out of the car.
02/08/2011 at 16:54 Quinny says:
Final Fantasy X.
Not a PC game, but the saddest ending to a game I’ve played.
02/08/2011 at 17:13 noodlecake says:
I agree completely. It’s one of the few games to make me cry. Tres affligeant!
Metal Gear Solid 3, definitely. I’m not sure about PC games… None really come to mind. I think maybe PC game developers need to start hiring good writers!
02/08/2011 at 18:32 Bahumat says:
Definitely echoing the Final Fantasy 10 ending. I held it together until the moment she was forlornly whistling in vain(?) on the dock. Lost it and wept like a baby.
FF12′s sequence, with Balthier and Fran’s dialogue made me a bit misty too. Oh, those two. <3
Also, Freespace 1 and 2, and the Wing Commander games from way back when, all had great, satisfying endings.
02/08/2011 at 16:54 Gabbo says:
The Longest Journey’s ending, while extremely anti-climactic felt satisfying and quite upbeat all things considered by gaming standards. Even Crow gets a smile-worthy ending.
02/08/2011 at 16:56 Baka says:
Certainly not the best ending I’ve experienced, I’d have to think a bit harder than that, but
Fallout: New Vegas – Dead Money recently got a special place in my heart. I didn’t really enjoy the DLC at the beginning, even paused the game for a few months, but after finishing it a few weeks back and returning to the nearly forgotten wasteland I discovered that the Sierra Madre is still broadcasting. After listening to Vera’s melancholic and bittersweet parting words I was somehow overcome by a warm feeling that made me look back on a bumpy experience much more fondly. It was truly a great moment.
02/08/2011 at 16:56 Shazbut says:
Ever 17. You haven’t played it, just take my word for it that I’m right.
02/08/2011 at 17:15 infinite_walrus says:
Holy crap, this is the correct answer. I can’t believe someone else mentioned this game before I did. I finally registered on this site just so I could reply with Ever 17 having the best ending ever. I’m not just limiting that to video games either, in any storytelling medium.
That said, have you played 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on the DS. One of the writers of Ever 17 was involved with 999. While it treads a lot of the same stuff as Ever 17, it’s still pretty awesome. Some parts are better than Ever 17, some are worse.
02/08/2011 at 18:28 Shazbut says:
A couple of erudite people like yourself have mentioned 999 to me so I really should get on it, but I don’t have a DS and am loath to order a game for a console I would have to borrow. I watched about an hour of it on Youtube before giving up. Certainly looks like it could be similarly good, even if it seems to borrow Ever 17′s somewhat annoying trick of having characters talk about obscure theories and philosophies that only become relevant later.
Given that visual novels make up something like 25% of the PC market in Japan, I suspect there are untranslated ones that put even these two to shame.* The best game endings have to be in visual novels because they are the closest the medium has to interactive fiction. Just as the worst would be in games that have no narrative at all.
EDIT: * – One might be “YU-NO – The Girl that Chants Love at the Edge of the World”. We should be finding out soon.
02/08/2011 at 16:56 McDan says:
For me: red dead redemption. Because you’d been through so much with the character.
02/08/2011 at 16:59 Ian says:
This probably falls into my “S’just setting up a sequel” comment I made above, but I did like the ending of Freedom Fighters.
Everyone: “Woop woop! We won! Woo-hah!”
Protagonist: “Actually, we’ve only saved one city.”
I think that gets away with it just about purely because it can stand on it’s own. It doesn’t need the sequel I would desperately like to resolve anything, it’s just pointing out a fact of the game’s story.
I should totally buy Freedom Fighters again.
02/08/2011 at 17:01 Vagrant says:
Best game ending? It’s in the dirty hippie console gaming route:
Super Metroid
Final Fantasy Tactics
Vagrant Story
Also:
Dwarf Fortress
02/08/2011 at 17:11 President Weasel says:
Dwarf Fortress the “bad” ending, or Dwarf Fortress the “good” ending, where you find the Ruby of Kukundu?
02/08/2011 at 17:40 Vagrant says:
Dwarf Fortress the good ending, where the fortress succumbs to some horrible, terrible calamity. Preferably brought on by their own greed or their own over-engineering.
02/08/2011 at 17:50 President Weasel says:
Or, if you’re trying to do an RPS chain game on the forums, the “ending” is that one guy spent weeks apparently unable to open a simple zip file, the next guy dropped out, and the third in line said he’d do his turns and then vanished from mortal ken.
02/08/2011 at 17:03 Anthile says:
Cryostasis. Oh, I almost forgot: Arcanum. Especially as it implies that siding with the villain and killing every living creature is the best ending.
02/08/2011 at 17:05 TheApologist says:
Beyond Good and Evil.
Aaaaah jus’ kidding
02/08/2011 at 17:07 TheApologist says:
So why are there so few endings you respect, Jim? Seems like a carefully chosen word. Do you think developers are somehow cheating their audience, or getting away with things they shouldn’t? I may just be uncritical but it hasn’t really occurred to me as a general problem.
02/08/2011 at 17:08 Annexed says:
For recent satisfaction, finishing Super Meat Boy takes some beating. And on the indie theme, World of Goo had a delightful ending.
02/08/2011 at 18:33 Bahumat says:
Oooh! World of Goo had a great ending!
02/08/2011 at 20:24 LionsPhil says:
Godspeed, little goos. *sniff*
02/08/2011 at 17:09 Text_Fish says:
Medal of Honour: Allied Assault
Seriously, I thought it was really good. Back then I had limited internet access and I was truly shocked when I jumped online some time after finishing it and found loads of people complaining about it. The gas mask and the mustard factory were so atmospheric! Much more preferable than a boss fight, which just wouldn’t fit with anything in the previous levels. It was nice to see your squad rolling off in a train as well — it suggested that real war is some sort of team effort. Controversial, I know.
02/08/2011 at 17:24 Baka says:
Fort Schmerzen :D
…Sorry.
02/08/2011 at 17:10 BathroomCitizen says:
I loved Half-Life’s 1 ending. And Quake 1′s ending.
edit: oooh, and Warcraft 3′s Human and Orc campaign endings!
02/08/2011 at 17:13 Ajh says:
I went through a list of games I liked the endings for and found something really interesting. Almost all of them are by western developers, the exception being Zelda: Twilight Princess.
Most have been mentioned already but my list of endings i like:
- Most of the Legacy of Kain games, with the exception of Soul reaver 1.
- Starcraft II
- Mass Effect 1 and 2
- Dragon Age 1 (2 just didn’t speak to me the same way..sorry.)
- Planescape (I am one of those that flat out considers this the best rpg ever.)
- Prince of Persia Sands of Time. The most recent prince of persia game also.
I’m sure i could think of others given time, but those are the ones that stuck in my mind when you asked for best game endings.
02/08/2011 at 18:32 Synesthesia says:
soul reaver! the pillars of nosgoth! yes, those were good.
02/08/2011 at 17:14 Hides-His-Eyes says:
The Longest Journey!
Oh shit, you weren’t nearly so special as you thought
02/08/2011 at 17:16 Bluerps says:
I actually liked most endings I’ve seen in my gaming-life.
One that comes to mind right now is the ending of Icewind Dale, when it turns out that the gentle storyteller-voice, that accompanied you through the game, actually belongs to the main villain, who sits in hell and awaits his inevitable return. Doesn’t make much sense, but I was amused nevertheless.
02/08/2011 at 17:16 MikeBBetts says:
Dragon Age: Origins….
… provided your Warden didn’t die during the last fight. You get a playable epilogue and the chance to say goodbye (or “come along then” in a certain red-headed bard’s case…) to all your party members. Rather than just a wonky cut-scene. And then you go out to greet your fans, for saving the world and all. No, really.
It gave me the sort of satisfaction of ending no other RPG has ever done, that I’ve played, and which they should all do.
02/08/2011 at 17:16 Tuan says:
I can’t remember the last time I have actually finished a game… just get too bored to keep coming back to the same one these days. At least the ones with endings… hmm, a pattern?
I will play Minecraft constantly, and rouge-like games, online FPS’s… hmm. Maybe I just don’t like games with endings anymore!
02/08/2011 at 17:20 RakeShark says:
The Neverhood.
02/08/2011 at 17:20 CMaster says:
There was a hivemind article on this a while back
In a comment on that article I observed that one of the problems with most game endings is that they don’t really take into account the Player’s actions throughout the game. At the end of a civ game, it would be great if it recognised the history and future of some of the key cities, remembered the sites of great battles and events. It would be nice if games like DX and Alpha Protocol made some reflection on how much of a violent bastard you were. Etc.
Here’s what I said to try and get myself across back then:”I’ve had some of this thinking about endings recently, and how I’d really like a lot of them to be more satisfactory. A lot of that comes down to trying to pull some things out about how each individual player experiences the game, rather than a neatly written ending.
One of the particular things I was thinking was the end of a fairly grand strategy game like (but probably not quite) Civ. Afterwards, you get a tale about how certain key cities or units of yours were important in times on. How key notable events are mentioned in history books. How the enmity between your side and the one that kept declaring war on you was healed or deepened. Really awesome would be if you then got thrown back into the game, in a new, limited scenario. EG where your dictatorial rule has fermented a rebellion, where despite your cultural and economic dominion; a warlord had managed to arise in some bitter corner, and now the rest of the free world has to fight back; or where either alien invasion or more peaceful first contact has come to a newly united planet.”
02/08/2011 at 17:21 Radiant says:
Lost.
No wait the Sopranos.
Wait what time is it?
Who are you people?
02/08/2011 at 17:22 iwem.xo says:
Homeworld. Relief at finally regaining your home planet, and melancholy at all the destruction left in your wake. Really did it for me.
Also, if it weren’t limited to video games, this.
02/08/2011 at 17:24 Desvergeh says:
Surprised no one has mentioned Pathologic or The Void.
Neither count as the best to me, but both are pretty good.
02/08/2011 at 17:24 Chibithor says:
The Devil on G-String. Does that count? ‘Cause it should.
02/08/2011 at 17:32 Out Reach says:
Both the portals are obvious choices… who doesn’t want to end in a song :D
But let’s think of vaguely better options…
Gal Civ 2. Remembering the golden rule of game design “There is always going to be someone stupid enough to do something, so always have a special line of dialog ready for the person who does”.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b379/newreach268/MasteroftheUniverse.png
02/08/2011 at 17:32 G915 says:
System Shock 2
02/08/2011 at 17:32 Sweedums says:
I thought Hitman Blood Money had a pretty great ending.
02/08/2011 at 17:33 jonfitt says:
Digital: A Love Story
03/08/2011 at 01:27 deadbob says:
well said
02/08/2011 at 17:36 povu says:
Planescape Torment, the one in which you basically talk the final boss to death.
02/08/2011 at 17:36 Puppetmast0r says:
Morrowind, Max Payne, Mafia…
…and that’s just the M’s!
02/08/2011 at 17:37 airtekh says:
My votes go to:
Bioshock 2
Planescape: Torment
Darwinia
Portal 2
Grim Fandago
02/08/2011 at 21:23 Clockwork Peanut says:
Great choices.
Funny how the ending of Bioshock 1 is terrible but Bioshock 2 is brilliant. the whole time I was thinking “christ… I’ve created a bitch” and I actually felt kind of bad!
(not a common occurrence in games even when the devs are trying for that emotion)
02/08/2011 at 17:37 thedextriarchy says:
Not really properly in-game, but Penumbra: Requiem has one of the only good multiple-endings stories I’ve seen: It’s implied that both are true simultaneously, and if you take them together, you get both tragedy and incredible relief.
I feel like endings, in general, are difficult to pin down, especially in games that are based in achievement. In narrative games you’re almost working against the feeling of success that the player gets from beating the game, and trying not to deliver the Manichean “Wow, everything’s awesome! You saved the day!” (Bioshock Good Ending), “Your actions were evil, and now everything is terrible.” (Bioshock Bad Ending), or “Your actions were completely irrelevant, have a cutscene.” (Half-Life Series) A good game ending needs to both follow from the things you’ve done and deliver something that enhances, rather than merely concluding, the story. That’s hard.
02/08/2011 at 17:39 Laurentius says:
Tie Fighter :
Zaarin’s dead,
“Thrawn : Thus is the fate of the enemies of the Empire”
Medal
Ta ta ta tadada,tadada, credits roll…
Yep, that was the best.
02/08/2011 at 17:40 Nihil says:
I’d agree with Portal – obviously it’s been memed up the shazoo by now, but I played the game after getting the Orange Box on the day of release without having even the slightest clue what it was about. A few hours later, when ‘Still Alive’ suddenly kicked off, I sat back in my chair laughing at the genius of it all. Perfect end to an excellent game.
Mass Effect 2, specifically (rot13.com) jura lbh znantr gb fnir rirelbar va gur fhvpvqr zvffvba – bu uryy lrf. Vg’f rira pnyyrq ‘Gur Fhvpvqr Zvffvba’ ohg abobql qvrq orpnhfr V’z whfg gung shpxvat tbbq. Erncref? Uru, OEVAT VG!
Finally, and because I care not for the flames I shall doubtless receive for bringing up a console game, the awesome (if mental) ‘Another Side, Another Story [Deep Dive]’ ending to Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix. Cool fight scene + Mickey Mouse in a badass trenchcoat with a huge sword. Yes. You did just read that correctly.
02/08/2011 at 17:41 Jimbo says:
Mafia and The Witcher are up there. CoD 4 has a pretty great ending. Max Payne maybe.
Prince of Persia ’08 is probably my favourite which involves gameplay in any meaningful way. That failed double jump justifies the entire ending; it’s genius game design.
02/08/2011 at 17:42 Derk_Henderson says:
Baldur’s Gate 2, mostly because Irenicus was one of my favorite game villains ever. And after he spent the entire game just casually fucking with your life and your soul through obscenely powerful magic, watching him wake up in hell and have his magic FAIL HIM was the most satisfying thing ever. I may or may not have actually cackled with glee when I first beat that game.
02/08/2011 at 17:43 Urthman says:
The Strangers mod for Freedom Force has one of the best endings and the best final boss and climactic series of fights of any game I’ve ever played. The whole game adds all these powers and features that you didn’t know the Freedom Force engine was even capable of (because it wasn’t before this mod), and then the final boss starts throwing all these brand new surprising and amazing powers at you that you haven’t seen before that just makes him feel so…cosmic…in a comic book sense of the word, which is exactly the effect the game wants.
I like the ending of World of Goo.
I also like the very end of Psychonauts, not the Meat Circus level, but the revelation about who the Big Bad really is (and isn’t).
The final battle of the first Serious Sam was pretty astonishingly epic at the time.
02/08/2011 at 17:44 Tannrar says:
‘Splosion Man.
02/08/2011 at 17:46 RagingLion says:
Braid.
(and now I will avert my eyes because I don’t want to see any spoilers)
02/08/2011 at 17:47 CMaster says:
Ooops. I am impatient and foolish with my reposting antics.
02/08/2011 at 17:47 gulag says:
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. An ending so good I don’t ever want to play the game again. It’s refreshing and damning in every sense.
02/08/2011 at 21:57 deadbob says:
hmm, i picked this up in the steam sale and wasnt very impressed with it in the short time i played it, is it worth bashing my way through?
it was more the controls, rather than the graphics, (which I quite enjoyed), played on keyboard rather than gamepad
02/08/2011 at 17:47 Zaboomafoozarg says:
Neverwinter Nights 2 – rocks fall, everyone dies. A classic.
02/08/2011 at 17:49 gulag says:
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. An ending so good I don’t ever want to play the game again. Refreshing and damning in every sense.
02/08/2011 at 17:49 Vagrant says:
I’m gonna put the first Modern Warfare as having a great ending, too. The bit on the bridge at the end was fantastic. In a similar vein (or so I’m told), Metal Gear Solid 3.
Generally speaking, cutscene endings are meh. I want a game, not a movie.
ToeJam & Earl?
02/08/2011 at 17:51 BloatedGuppy says:
Planescape Torment. Best ending to what is still the best story in the history of the medium. Melancholy, philosophical, intelligent, and adult.
Honorable mention for Ultima IV, for giving us a thoughtful, non-violent culmination to a thoughtful, non-violent game at a time when its contemporaries were all about how many goblin corpses you could stack up.
02/08/2011 at 17:51 dodgymadman says:
Operation Flashpoint: the ending where you fail. As a result a nuke is set off and World Ware Three presumably begins. Ouch.
02/08/2011 at 18:00 Malleus says:
There are some killer bad endings in Arma2′s Harvest Red campaign too. :)
02/08/2011 at 17:51 milktrayhero says:
Not a PC game, but Killer 7 takes the cake for a satisfyingly unsatisfying ending that doesn’t let you off the hook.
SPOILER: after all the political intrigue and convoluted back story, you discover that you’re just some nut who killed his selfishly killed his friends for personal gain. You’re also half-nuts and emotionally ruined by the end of the main story.
And the epilogue is ace: let the American assholes nuke Japan into the ocean, or let Japan declare WW3 against America? And it doesn’t even matter, because the whole thing’s going to start again in 100 years anyway.
02/08/2011 at 19:13 Baf says:
One of my favorite things about this: The entry screen before each mission shows a silhouette of the person you’re supposed to kill. Before the final mission, you get a silhouette of a flag waving in the breeze. Because it’s just a silhouette, you can’t tell whose flag it is.
02/08/2011 at 17:54 ascagnel says:
It’s not out yet on PC, but LA Noire is my favorite of 2011 (so far). For the first quarter of the game, it’s a bog-standard police procedural, but then it moves into some creative places in the second quarter. The climax is doled out in drive and drabs, almost to the point of frustration, but the climax is perfect.
02/08/2011 at 17:55 Bozzley says:
The ending to the first Mass Effect game. Knowing that you’d gone through all that trouble to take the nasty guy down, to realise that thousands of very nasty spaceships were coming for you. And then – Faunts. Love it.
02/08/2011 at 17:55 tikki says:
One of the more “memorable” was the ending to Karateka. However, my favorite and vote for best game ending is from Portal.
02/08/2011 at 17:56 captainfuzz says:
Braid. Beautiful, bitter-sweet ending.
02/08/2011 at 17:56 Malleus says:
Cryostasis. It’s just the ultimate good ending. It isn’t choosing the lesser evil, or bittersweet or “to be continued” bullshit – you just did the right thing, and made things right. STALKER’s nirvana ending (the one where the protagonist lies in the grass) is pretty close, I like that too.
Other than those, Thief Deadly Shadows’ was great too with the reference to the first game’s intro.
I also found Prince of Persia’s (the 2008 one) to be quite powerful, though I generally don’t like inconclusive endings, but this worked.
02/08/2011 at 17:59 Pixiedust says:
Maybe I’m alone in this but I really liked the ending of the first Diablo. It was a bit surprising and touching – a true heroic sacrifice.
02/08/2011 at 18:05 sinister agent says:
Starcraft Brood Wars had a terrific ending cut scene. Very dramatic, a little sad, and hinting at what was to come without leaving a real cliffhanger.
Hitman 2 was simple but rather nice, I thought. Saying goodbye to your only friend, the priest, and realising that you would only endanger him if you stayed. Then he gives you his crucifix as a symbol of the good in people, and asks that you take it with you, which you do… until you reach the gate of the church. Pretty good for a series that’s generally not really about the story so much as about great levels and working in an excuse to use them.
Blood Money wasn’t too shabby either. Less dramatic, but more complex.
Freedom Force Vs. the Third Reich. Even though I must be disappoined by the likelihood that there will be no sequel, the ending, and if we’re allowed to cheat a bit, the last few levels all together, were excellent, and truly in keeping with its theme.
Psychonauts. Even though again, sequel missing.
UFO/XCOM (the bad ending).
Deus Ex, Tong style. Find us..!
Flashback, and its fairly ropey imitator Onescapee (it hasn’t aged well at all, but the ending was a great idea). Flashback’s was short and simple, and neatly understated. It was pretty tragic too, given the incredibly things you’d just lived through and done. Great music, too. On the Amiga, at least. I’d imagine the other formats had the then-standard horrible warbling MIDI music.
02/08/2011 at 18:05 Glycerine says:
Little Big Adventure 2. I know, i know…looking back, it was fairly generic, but the whole thing absolutely oozed charm and general loveliness, and the ending was no exception. One for the execution rather than the ideas i guess.
Grim Fandango was excellent, but has already been mentioned. I actually loved the storytelling in Warcraft 3, so that would probably have to be in there too.
Outside of that, there’s probably a few old console games from my youth…Streets of Rage was pretty brilliant as a kid (who doesn’t want to beat up your friend then become the baddy?!).
02/08/2011 at 18:09 Urthman says:
I liked the end of World of Goo very much.
I really like the ending of Psychonauts. Not the Meat Circus level, but the resolution of Raz’s story, especially the true identity of the Big Bad.
The final battle of the first Serious Sam game was astonishingly epic at the time.
The Strangers Mod for Freedom Force has one of the best endings and the best boss and series of climactic battles of any game I’ve ever played. During the whole game, the mod has all these features and powers that you didn’t know the Freedom Force engine was capable of (because it wasn’t, before this mod) and then the final boss starts hitting you with still more powers and abilities you haven’t seen before in a way that makes him seem truly…cosmic…in the comic book sense, which is exactly what the game is going for.
02/08/2011 at 18:10 Monchberter says:
*Obligatory Team Fortress 2 mention*
And if i’m being smart arsed, i’ll say the end of a particularly enjoyable round of Badwater playing as Blu.
02/08/2011 at 18:10 ChainsawCharlie says:
My favourite ending would be the first Mafia
02/08/2011 at 18:12 Chaomancer says:
Hostile Waters
Portal, both 1 and 2
Alpha Centauri
02/08/2011 at 18:16 Morte66 says:
Bladerunner, the 1980s adventure game, had excellent multiple endings. It pains me that 25 years worth of multimillion dollar AAA RPGs haven’t matched this game that came on four 3.5 inch floppies.
02/08/2011 at 18:16 Matt_W says:
Without doubt, the best ending ever in a game is the ending of Guitar Hero 3. The breathtaking revelations that your manager was actually the devil . Your heroic musical stand against Lucifer to escape Hell while the screaming (in pain? in adulation?) crowds looked on. The poignant final confrontation to the frenzied strains of Devil Went Down to Georgia! And when you finally escaped and has won, you could play the oh-so-appropriate Through the Fire and Flames during the credits . My mind reels just remembering the ecstasy of those final moments.
02/08/2011 at 18:16 arioch says:
Final fantasy 10…
Oh wait I’m on rps…
The longest Journey was pretty incredible…
02/08/2011 at 18:21 wab1981 says:
Thief 3 was good, Garrett echoing the words spoken to him at the beginning of T1 in that sardonic drawl of his was ace
02/08/2011 at 18:24 molten_tofu says:
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. Oh wait, no I had to play the game three times through just figure out what was happening. And it was better every time.
02/08/2011 at 18:25 Jikid says:
I actually liked the ending of the Prince of Persia from 2008. Otherwise mostly mediocre, unsure or just plain too easy (although fun enough), but the ending surprised me and I found myself thinking about the game and the story and everything related while going silently through the motions required to end the game. The lack of physical obstacles at this point and the peacefulness of it all, even the final foreboding cinematic, felt different. And the subjectivity of it all felt rather human.
I presume a lot of people hated it though.
The ending of Braid was also so very sad and ironic and well done (if you’re okay with letting a few animation problems slip and only counting the meaning). Too bad he was unable to express the rest of the story as well.
02/08/2011 at 18:26 szendroib says:
It just doesnt gets better than Metal Gear Solid 3′s ending in my opinion. So much emotion. Shadow of the Colossus was also sweet.
If I had to say a PC game it would be probably Mafia. Its ending is so fitting.
02/08/2011 at 18:28 somnolentsurfer says:
Wow. More comments than I have time to read right now.
Dreamfall.
02/08/2011 at 18:29 Perkelnik says:
Max Payne 2.
“She was dead. But it was allright.”
Its impossible to understand what these 2 sentences realy mean unless you’ve played both games. But if you did, you will remember them forever.
03/08/2011 at 17:47 wab1981 says:
Accidentily played it on the harder setting and Mona lives, felt so happy for Max after all he’d been through!
02/08/2011 at 18:33 Duoae says:
For me, Prince of Persia: The sands of Time’s bittersweet ending was perfect.
Portal was also a pretty good ending – combined with the music.
The running to the drop ship in AvP2 was pretty awesome at the time.
Defeating LeChuck in Monkey Island 2 was also cool.
… and, dare i say it: The warthog sequence at the end of Halo (Computer Edition, obviously) was also really cool.
03/08/2011 at 05:16 Kloreep says:
I forgot Sands of Time, that was indeed a great ending.
02/08/2011 at 18:34 Ginger Yellow says:
Portal, the very end anyway. The ending of the game itself is good, but not great. But the song made me deliriously happy.
Half Life 2: Episode 2: This is how climactic boss battles should be done. No glowing red weak spots, no arbitrarily large amount of hit-points, just a perfectly tuned ramping of tension and difficulty. Just listen to the commentary to see how much care went into it.
Grim Fandango: The perfect ending to the perfect adventure game.
02/08/2011 at 21:40 LionsPhil says:
Funny thing is I found the first two striders the hardest part of the car-and-bombs battle, and it got easier from then. That second one will destroy the sawmill if you get distracted by the first.
02/08/2011 at 18:36 Farewell says:
Kerrigan’s “Queen Bitch of the Universe” speech at the end of Brood War.
02/08/2011 at 18:42 Duoae says:
I don’t know what happened to my previous comment but i’d like to add the legendary ending to “Limbo of the Lost” to the list. It’s not the best ending ever… but it might just be the “best” ending ever (both to the game and the story behind the game).
02/08/2011 at 18:44 dahauns says:
Anyone remember Flood on the Amiga?
02/08/2011 at 23:15 deadbob says:
Splat
03/08/2011 at 08:26 Harlander says:
Heheheheh.
After all that effort, the ending’s such a punch in the balls :D
02/08/2011 at 18:46 Noodle says:
Maybe it’s because it’s because I played it recently, so I’ll say the best ending in the last 2 years for me is Time Gentlemen, Please. It’s nice little ending, and rounds up the previous game too. I’ve not laughed so much to something for a long time. Something about the style, and the price, and length of the game was just so right. It didn’t hype itself up to anything a la Witcher and many games besides.
I think that’s why Lucasarts games like MI2, GF and Full Throttle are featuring a lot here. They aren’t cinematic blockbusters so there isn’t any anticipation, but you are also really engaged with the story so it’s quite fulfilling when it rounds up nicely.
02/08/2011 at 18:52 Welsh_Medic says:
How about the good ending of The Last Express? The First World War, dramatic irony, a weird robo-bird, animated maps and lots of melancholy added up to a very memorable finale.
02/08/2011 at 18:52 Squiddity says:
Marathon: Infinity’s “You Are Destiny” did metatextuality better than any game that came after it, most notably Portal and Bioshock. I actually felt like I accomplished something there.
Also, “I Want to be Rich” in STALKER is not the greatest ending ever, but it has moved me more than any other video game (even if that movement was to anger).
04/08/2011 at 16:08 Mungrul says:
Yeah, as a summation of an excellent story (one that I personally feel puts the similar story of System Shock 1 and 2 to shame), Marathon Infinity was superb. Really had me pondering. But the writing throughout the trilogy was superb.
In fact, prior to becoming “That Halo Company”, Bungie wrote some of the best stories in video games. Both Bungie Myth games were spectacular examples of fantasy writing and could have easily stood alone as novelisations I thought, and Oni deftly explored Anime Cyberpunk themes.
After those, Halo felt like a let down.
02/08/2011 at 18:53 Baf says:
I’ve always been fond of the ending and final credits sequence in the original Quest for Glory (or Hero’s Quest, as it was called at the time). I don’t know how well it holds up today, but seeing it as a child, it was the first time I had seen an ending and thought “Yeah! That’s how a game should end!”
First, the stirring music starts up, and all the characters in the game throw you a big party in recognition of what you’ve done for them. Yes, all your little fetch quests are actually appreciated! Then you get on a flying carpet headed for a faraway land where your heroism is needed, and the credits roll over the more sedate and calming music as you drift lazily above the valley where the entire game took place. This is the first time in the game that you get to see the valley as a whole, with its major features all visible, and it somehow conveys a real sense of accomplishment, like looking down from a mountaintop after a long climb. This is what it was all for, the peace of this place. You’ve been concentrating on the details so long that finally getting a good long look at the big picture feels really makes it feel worthwhile.
This cleverly transitions into a carpet flyby of the Sierra logo, followed by the music kicking up into high gear again as it displays an advertisement of the forthcoming sequel. I don’t think I’ve ever been so jazzed about a sequel as in that moment.
02/08/2011 at 18:59 Symbul says:
Unreal 2. I was so pissed off when they blew up your spaceship with the anatomically improbably woman and everyone else that I stayed up extra late to get revenge on the motherfuckers responsible.
Emotional engagement and closure.
02/08/2011 at 20:54 LionsPhil says:
I did consider that one, mostly for being kind of surprisingly downbeat in a game that didn’t really seem to be reaching for much beyond chewing gum action. But I’m not sure it was good.
02/08/2011 at 19:00 Wooly Wugga Wugga says:
The only great endings that come to mind are Fallout 1 and 2. The I remember finishing the second game first and being blown away that I had actually made a long term difference.
02/08/2011 at 19:18 Kashin says:
Kingdom Hearts had a pretty sad ending that really made me feel like the story was not yet finished, and really yearn to be able to go back into that universe and continue.
So, in the sense that it made me excited for the sequel, it was very good.
02/08/2011 at 19:21 Inglourious Badger says:
I agree with the commenters who say the endings you decide are the best ones. When I think of great endings I think of Deus Ex and Blade Runner. All 3 of Deus Ex’s choices are just perfect, I remember really struggling to decide which way to go the first playthrough.
And all the Blade Runner endings I found (about 7) made sense. I think my favourite was letting the replicants think you beleived you were one of them, but then once they let you in to their getaway ship you retire every last one of them and step out of that poignant scene to a hero’s welcome from your fellow blade runners.
For scripted endings I’m suprised (unless I missed it) Gravity Bone hasn’t been mentioned. It’s so short the whole game is only there to set up the ending, but it’s still a suprising and brilliant twist.
And FEAR. That was brilliant. All games should end like that
02/08/2011 at 22:08 FunkyBadger3 says:
Best bit of the Dues Ex ending is the face off with whatsisface just before that:
WHF “We will burn in penal fire” (it was Milton, right?)
JC: You’re going to burn alright.
02/08/2011 at 22:44 TheGameSquid says:
I think Deus Ex was pretty the much the only game that actually made me think for a VERY long time before finally making a decision. Each side felt like it had a genuine pro and con side to it. I also really liked the build-up you could feel before the end. You just knew you were going to have to make a terrible decision at the end, I had no idea who I was going to side with. In the end I picked the Tracer ending. I loved the “Find us” part!
And yeah, “You’re gonna burn alright.” cracks me up every time. I now find it hard to imagine that I disliked JC so much on my first playthrough. He has some of the greatest one-liners ever!
“Take a look at Manderley’s dead body. Consider that my resignation.”
“I’ll take the candybar.”
“THINK TANKS. DEMOCRACY. UNATCO.”
03/08/2011 at 05:58 Skabooga says:
“A bomb!?”
02/08/2011 at 19:26 FunkyBadger3 says:
GTA 4 – “You won, Nico.”
02/08/2011 at 19:36 Tom Camfield says:
Earthbound, you finally get to use the option “PRAY” which was available from the start but never did anything, and the game whizzes you around all the previous locations and people that you helped who are all praying that you succeed on your quest, and its the combined might of their good will that succeeds in destroying the Big Bad.
02/08/2011 at 21:03 Oozo says:
On a more serious note, I totally second Earthbound. What you described would be beautiful in and of itself, but you left out a crucial part: the last person the game asks to pray is YOU – the player, whose name it got by tricking you into writing it down way, way earlier (so that ideally, you have forgotten it by then). It’s also important that once the Big Bad is done with, you can go on playing the game – returning home, where your mother is waiting for you, ever caring. Sentimental? Maybe. Unique and powerful? Absolutely.
02/08/2011 at 19:36 coldvvvave says:
Oni
02/08/2011 at 19:38 morningoil says:
I got to page 4 and no-one’d mentioned Bioforge yet …
03/08/2011 at 18:41 dahauns says:
While it was ok, the obvious setup for a sequel (that never came) somewhat blunted it for me.
02/08/2011 at 19:40 nandocanedo says:
Mafia
Monkey Island 2
Second Sight
02/08/2011 at 19:41 Nick says:
Always partial to the Fallouts, that give a nice epilogue for all the towns/settlements and what happened to them as a result of your actions.
02/08/2011 at 19:45 INinja132 says:
The last mission of the original Call of Duty, where you storm the Reichstag was pretty great. A lot better than it was in World at War anyhoo. It was an awesome ending to an awesome game.
02/08/2011 at 20:56 LionsPhil says:
Man, I wrote about that, and the comment system appears to have eaten it. Let’s see if it’ll stick a second time:
02/08/2011 at 19:52 thrawn says:
A great ending needs a great build-up… so… JADE EMPIRE! Seriously, best plot twist ever, and great ending. After that, Dragon Age Origins.
03/08/2011 at 10:26 Prosper0_cz says:
Wait wut:-O?
02/08/2011 at 19:52 Kevin says:
Man, 7 pages and only a single mention of Homeworld?
I’d also go with the independent ending for Vampire – The Masquerade: Bloodlines and the true ending for STALKER: SoC
02/08/2011 at 19:52 Moonracer says:
generally, an ending that gives closure to the story. It’s okay to leave enough open for a sequel, but I hate cliffhangers.
Best endings for me are in the Fallout series. A narrated slideshow that tells the player the long term outcome of the choices they made in the world. It gives closure and makes it feel like the world exists long after you are done playing.
02/08/2011 at 19:54 Jae Armstrong says:
No mention of Ico yet? The music plays, and the credits roll, and the castle crumbles, and you float out to sea.
Eventually, you wake up on a beach. Nothing to do and nowhere to go. You kick around in the surf for a while, aimlessly, and eventually you decide to walk. And the sand goes on, and on, and on. But if you walk far enough, you find…
And it’s enough.
BG&E, PS:T, PoP ’08, Max Payne 2, all favourites.
And, oh, Wind Waker. No, for serious. Perhaps more for what it meant in the context of the series as a whole than as a standalone piece, but still.
02/08/2011 at 19:56 thezirk says:
Dragon Age: Origins
02/08/2011 at 20:06 Koshzor says:
Secret ending of Braid is the best.
- Yo, princess!
- Boom.
02/08/2011 at 20:08 Azazel says:
George Martin was recently talking about how great he thought the bittersweet element to the ending of Lord of the Rings was, and how he’d hope to do something similar with A Song of Ice and Fire.
Just mentioning it, because I feel that the ending to Planescape Torment is in that same tradition.
02/08/2011 at 20:10 N1kolas says:
Quest for Glory 2.
02/08/2011 at 20:22 jama says:
I’m not sure if it counts, but: Clannad. See here: http://vndb.org/v4
02/08/2011 at 20:37 Waltorious says:
All three Thief games have truly excellent endings. I think my personal favorite ending is that of Thief II, but that might be a bias due to it being my favorite Thief game, as well as my favorite game ever.
(Note: Thief II is my favorite game ever, but not the best game I’ve ever played; that is in fact Deus Ex.)
I also second the mentions of Freespace 2… another fantastic ending.
SPOILER ALERT:
The best part of the ending of Freespace 2 is that I was able to choose to fight to the death, sacrificing myself in order to save a few more civilian ships. It was awesome.
02/08/2011 at 20:40 LionsPhil says:
(Ah, it finally showed up. Well, now it’s a duplicate.)
02/08/2011 at 20:41 Waltorious says:
Duplicate post removed, sorry!
02/08/2011 at 20:45 Waltorious says:
Duplicate post removed, sorry!
02/08/2011 at 20:47 Oozo says:
GOD HAND! God Power keeps my pimp hand strong etc.
To witness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAga2AjfZlg
Edge wrote that Portal can only look at those credits jealously from across the room. Ain’t they right!
(And I really got watery eyes seeing Ico end.)
(And yes, the PC games that come to mind were already mentioned.)
02/08/2011 at 20:49 Ren7on says:
I should said: Mafia (the first one). Not only the history is perfect but it also have a perfect ending. Cause there’s only two ways to end in that bussiness: In jail or death.
04/08/2011 at 11:10 PedroBraz says:
Everything ends in death eventually. If you mean by violence, well Al Capone, Bugs Moran and Lucky Luciano all died in their beds.
02/08/2011 at 21:22 PFlute says:
Final Fantasy VI for being a 45 minute long story-rich bonanza with a beautiful medley of engaging music.
OH PC right sorry please-don’t-shoot.
I, uh. I liked HL2′s ending.
02/08/2011 at 21:26 Max says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klZFG8nrnAg
There will never be an ending which surpasses that of X-COM UFO Defense (PlayStation version).
02/08/2011 at 21:40 googoogjoob says:
two worlds
trollface.jpg
02/08/2011 at 21:46 Jason Moyer says:
My nominations:
“What can change the nature of a man?”
The reunion mission in Cold War Crisis
All of the Shadow of Chernobyl endings, although the true ending where you decline the offer is the best
“JC…the net’s going…the net’s going black…”
“You did a super job wrapping thing’s up! And I’m not just saying that because I have to!”
The ending of the first Mass Effect would be one of the best ever if Shepard’s fate had remained ambiguous. Actually, given how the second one starts, I’m not sure why they didn’t go that route.
02/08/2011 at 22:05 JackShandy says:
Psychomnium.
“I AM THE WIZARD.”
02/08/2011 at 22:25 JackShandy says:
Shit guys, Cave Story. Beautiful endings, both of them. Can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned.
02/08/2011 at 22:25 KillahMate says:
This is ridiculous. Only people who have played *every game ever* can look at this comment thread without fear of some good game being spoiled to them! No one’s played *all* the good stuff, how can I participate in this?
For the record, ending of Planescape Torment is possibly best (all of them, really).
02/08/2011 at 22:30 karnie says:
Portal 2 by a longshot. That ending kept me enthralled.
02/08/2011 at 22:33 Wooly says:
To end… like THISSS??
02/08/2011 at 22:39 Dominus says:
THIEF the dark project has the best ending EVER!
proof: http://youtu.be/lGZA-KDy87Q
03/08/2011 at 03:15 PaulMorel says:
The cutscenes from Thief I and Thief II are still the best cutscenes in any video game. Yeah, the ending to Thief was really great.
02/08/2011 at 22:51 Burns says:
Homeworld.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqkPCKn7PTg&feature=related
02/08/2011 at 23:08 Chalkster says:
Braid’s ending blew my mind a bit, I’ll be honest.
The recent hammerfight had a surprisingly compelling story, and the ending I got was a surprising but not unwelcome change of tone.
02/08/2011 at 23:29 jaheira says:
My fave is Dreamfall, but honourable mentions to both FEAR 1 and 2 are in order. Also I thought the gunshot and the photo at the end of Far Cry 2 were pretty affecting.
03/08/2011 at 00:49 Retroblique says:
Full Throttle.
I remember staring at the screen as the end credits scrolled up, thinking, “Haha, nice one LucasArts! You got me there. I’ve only been playing the game for 4 hours, so this is obviously some sort of witty fake-out for the end of the first act. You’ll be throwing me back into the game any minute now…”
“…any minute now…”
(credits finish, game throws me to the DOS prompt)
“Okay, what the fuck?”
I guess this is one of the reasons why I loved The Dig. It had puzzles and stuff and lasted more than four hours. You know, like a traditional LucasArts adventure game should. Never really understood all that love for Full Throttle and hate for The Dig. PC gamers done got it backwards.
03/08/2011 at 01:30 InternetBatman says:
This thread is reminding me of all my favorites. Thief III, PST, and Masquerade were particularly good. My favorite type of ending is the Fallout style ending where it shows what happens to the region you were in. My favorite game ending was probably Terranigma, which I played on a PC.
03/08/2011 at 01:33 Werthead says:
Freespace 2. Simply because the game completely killed you stone dead in what felt like a routine convoy-escorting mission with absolutely no way of avoiding it, but it didn’t matter because the ending narration made it clear that what you did in that mission saved a lot of lives. Of course, immediately after experiencing that I replayed the mission and cheekily made sure I was close enough to a jump zone to get clear when all hell breaks loose. Impressively, the ending cut scene took account of this and had you lauded as a hero, but I’m pretty sure there was a slighlty snide, “We know you only survived because of hindsight,” feel to it. An interesting end to one of the greatest games ever.
As someone else mentioned, MAFIA’s ending is really intense, powerful and surprisingly tragic, as is MAX PAYNE 2′s. Going for tragedy seems to be a good way of making these endings memorable. Oh, and THE THING’s, which almost managed to out-ambiguise the Carpenter movie’s ending.
03/08/2011 at 01:38 kament says:
Well. That’s quite a number of opinions we got here. And it’s probably pretty lame of me to mention ME2 in that bunch of glorious names (actually, folks, you did remind me of some great games I thought I left behind; Deus Ex, e.g.). But anyway, that’s it, ME2. Because of music, mostly, and some of pretty cool possible conversations and… “awesome explosion, right?” :) I just wanna add that I consider the ending of the game that whole section right from the last touch of the galaxy map. That really is the grand finale.
03/08/2011 at 01:53 noclip says:
I think one of the main reasons games don’t do endings very well is that most game endings generally aren’t interactive. Even in some of the best games there’s a point at which the “game” part ends and the player is basically shown an outro video (it can be in-engine, but it’s still just a video if the player is a passive observer). I haven’t played it myself but apparently one of the Halo games (of all things) had a more “gameish” ending that seemed fairly potent from the description.
03/08/2011 at 01:55 nyck says:
What about singularity? Was a bit strange, because i had to kill myself (without reason i could kill Demichev) but i died twice. And then, as i killed also Demichev everything that happened and i lived in Katorga 12 doesnt happen. So i was still alive, because the accident never happened :D
03/08/2011 at 03:12 PaulMorel says:
The original Portal ending was pretty great. Definitely the best credits song I’ve ever experienced.
The end of Half-Life 2 was also pretty great, in a “I can’t wait for the episodes” kind of way.
Braid also had a good ending.
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Assassin’s Creed endings. All of them have been very satisfying.
03/08/2011 at 03:51 Berto says:
From the top of my head, i really liked Sands of Time ending (it’s a bittersweet ending, i ignore the other games in the series) and Max Payne 2, it gives a perfect closure for Max and how he finnaly accepts his family death.
03/08/2011 at 05:11 Kloreep says:
Deus Ex and Grim Fandango are the ones that come to mind for me.
03/08/2011 at 05:40 LuNatic says:
A Bard’s Tale: the neutral ending.
03/08/2011 at 05:45 slatz_grobnik says:
World of Ultima: Martian Dreams.
That is, as long as we’re treating ending sequence, and not just absolute ending. Kinda simple, but funny, surprising, and just a little bit meta.
03/08/2011 at 06:29 Skabooga says:
At first, I thought it would be pretty easy to name a great game ending, but after going through all of my favorites, I found that most of them were more enjoyable to play than to end; not to say that the endings were bad, but just, I don’t know, always that hint of disappointment that accompanies them. I suppose it is always a let down to know you’ll never be able to play the game with the same wide-eyed wonder again.
But that being said, one of the best endings I can think of is to Prince of Persia (1990). The whole last level really sets it up: As your final minutes count down, you face a long climb up the massive tower, devoid of its usual guards; meeting your doppleganger (perhaps my favorite part of the entire game), and the final confrontation with the evil vizier. I remember rushing over his bloody heap of a corpse with my final few minutes ticking away, and then, before I even realize it, relief floods through me as I am in the princess’s chamber and she in my arms.
One of the earlier posts in this thread on Half-Life 2 mentioned how endings in games rarely rely on gameplay to convey the finality but instead use cutscenes for this purpose. One of the reasons Prince of Persia’s ending is so great is because of how successfully Mechner incorporates the ending into the gameplay.
03/08/2011 at 06:53 aloysis says:
Loom. An absolutely brilliant, haunting ending for an absolutely brilliant, haunting game.
03/08/2011 at 08:01 sergio.schuler says:
Knights of the Old Republic :) When, it is not properly the ending, but when you figure out you are Raven, it is like… Whaaaaaat?
03/08/2011 at 08:31 Atic Atac says:
A few great ones come to mind:
- Planescape: Torment
- Monkey Island 2
- Portal 1&2
- Metal Gear Solid 3
- ICO
03/08/2011 at 08:57 Kaldor says:
Any ending that is fitting, actually. Chances are, many games are not too well-written, so that endings don’t hold up either.
03/08/2011 at 09:10 Shadowcat says:
FIRST!
03/08/2011 at 09:13 K. says:
Great comment thread, it keeps filling my list of games-to-play-someday.
To add something not yet mentioned:
- Alpha Centauri, transcendent victory.
Ending the game by uploading your whole population into the consciousness of Planet and becoming one with the universe gave me a feeling of closure that has not been achieved by any other grand strategy game.
03/08/2011 at 11:06 F4T C4T says:
Wow, lots of comments. There’s only one ending that stands out to me and that’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Bringing Farah back to life by rewinding to before she knew him, then having to accept that fact tore me up.
Which is why the film felt so empty in that despite making a similar sacrifice he still ends up with Tamina (the film’s Farah) and lessens the impact of the whole thing.
03/08/2011 at 11:48 hello_mr.Trout says:
mondo agency!
you end up killing the president that you were hired to save from being killed by you!
03/08/2011 at 12:29 kaelus says:
Really? I went through 9 pages and not one mention of warcraft 3? I loved the ending. I mean there were better but many of them were already covered by other commenters. Say what you will about blizzard but they tell a decent story. =) It was so cold and chillilng loved it.
03/08/2011 at 12:39 pagad says:
Far Cry.
03/08/2011 at 13:35 Kdansky says:
One that I have not seen mentioned: Legacy of Kain – Defiance. The final fourth game of the Soul Reaver Trilogy (counting Blood Omen as a prologue). Raziel finally realizes who he is working for, and that the only way to win is by sacrificing what he has fought so hard to save for the entirety of three bloody games. The moment of clarity, during which Raziel does the unspeakable and by betraying himself also redeems himself, and Kain’s plan falls into place, without Kain actually understanding it.
Cryptic? Go play the bloody thing!
03/08/2011 at 13:36 Kdansky says:
One that I have not seen mentioned: Legacy of Kain – Defiance. The final fourth game of the Soul Reaver Trilogy (counting Blood Omen as a prologue). Raziel finally realizes who he is working for, and that the only way to win is by sacrificing what he has fought so hard to save for the entirety of three bloody games. The moment of clarity, during which Raziel does the unspeakable and by betraying himself also redeems himself, and Kain’s plan falls into place, without Kain actually understanding it.
Cryptic? Go play the bloody thing!
I also liked PST and Starcraft:BW. I like bad endings, apparently.
03/08/2011 at 19:44 TheIronSky says:
I know that none of you have played this considering you’re all PC gamers and such, but I like to cover the bases and play as many games as I can. That being said, let’s look at Red Dead Redemption.
When you take the whole story into perspective and then try to rationalize the ending after all you’d been through with your character, it becomes the best ending I’ve ever seen in any form of media. Ever.
Chances are none of you have any idea what I’m talking about, so my other favorite endings were to BioShock, Fallout (any of the games in the series, but mainly 3) Mass Effect 2 (not so much the ending itself as the battles leading up to the ending) and Portal 2. I can’t remember a game that had an ending that left me laughing as much as Portal 2.
04/08/2011 at 00:42 Theon says:
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Portal 2
…are the only two I can think of at the moment.
Then again, I suck at completing games.
I suspect Deus Ex and Grandia might have great endings; and one day, I shall surely know.
If we’re talking literature, I have to go with the end of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to The Galaxy-series.
That was absolutely marvellous.
04/08/2011 at 02:49 Gormongous says:
Well, I’m sure I’m going to be in the minority here, after not seeing my favorite after eight pages of comments, but I’m going to have to suggest the endgame for the first FEAR. You execute Fettel in the most anticlimactic non-bossfight ever, and then you’re assailed by the ghosts that have hitherto been harmless terrors. You spend the last minutes of the game running away and hiding, before you escape on a chopper… just to find out that even a nuke couldn’t kill your adversary. Cue final jump scare and credits.
A perfect subversion of shooter tropes, and some years before Bioshock tried the same and blew it with Fontaine and the stupid morality-based bifurcation.
04/08/2011 at 04:28 dileepvr says:
Can’t seem to go through all the comments to verify if this has been covered already, but the Original Thief 1 (The Dark Project) had an epic end-cinematic.
The stoytelling elements in that game created a frighteningly convincing illusion of grand scale. The amount of effort that went into developing the history and myths, and presenting them in such subtle ways, forced a certain reverence to the events and factions past. All of it fed so consistently into the believability of the ending. Few other pieces of fiction have managed to pull off the whole secret society thing without any trace element of cheesy-cliched-ness or tongue-in-cheek-ridiculousness whatsoever. And certainly, no game has done it like Thief has.
04/08/2011 at 11:07 PedroBraz says:
For a car game Interstate 76 had a good ending, because he dosnt let the bad guy go free or hand him over to the authorities. He shoots him repeatedly ask he ask for help. Good old fashion revenge. Very satisfying after playing the rest of the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QEzI44kiYQ&feature=related
“Never get out of the car”
04/08/2011 at 21:00 desnargue says:
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow…
the ending to this (before DLC) is just amazing. i did not expect it at all… even if the general story of the game isn’t that good, the ending makes up for it…. good stuff…
04/08/2011 at 21:21 Grim_22 says:
Soul Reaver 2 has the best one by far in my book. Can always do with more paradoxes.
05/08/2011 at 12:55 postwar says:
I know I’m going to get a ton of flak for this but I actually liked the way Dragon Age II ended (& not just the fact that it ended).
06/08/2011 at 22:51 Gary W says:
Yeah, the Killer7 100 Years Later ending is the best.
07/08/2011 at 01:28 xenophea says:
Some of my favourite game endings:
Half Life 2: Episode 2 – frankly it was about time someone died. And what an impact it made!
Jade Empire – I second that one. What a great RPG.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Shadow of Chernobyl (At least, the bit before the additional level).
Silent Hill 2 – I haven’t personally achieved all the endings but I certainly enjoyed all the ones that I have.
The worst ending in PC gaming history has to go to “Severance: Blade of Darkness” (seriously, WTF?!)
09/08/2011 at 00:16 Grim_22 says:
Without any doubt at all, Soul Reaver 2. I can say with confidence that I don’t believe I will ever see an ending better than that. Single most brilliant piece of writing in gaming history, especially if you suffer through the awkward Blood Omen 2 before playing it, just for the sake of the impact it adds to the last few lines in the SR2 ending.
16/08/2011 at 18:55 Erithtotl says:
Call of Duty 4
Planescape: Torment